HTML5: Not ready for prime time?

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Paul Krill of InfoWorld wrote an insightful article today about whether web sites should migrate content to include HTML5 features. He quotes Philippe LeHegaret of the W3C, who says:

"I don't think it's ready for production yet," especially since W3C still will make some changes on APIs, said Le Hegaret. "The real problem is can we make [HTML5] work across browsers and at the moment, that is not the case."

Later on, while remarking that we will eventually see less and less of Flash and Silverlight,

"We're not going to retire Flash anytime soon," Le Hegaret said. It will take years before all Web clients support HTML5, he said. 

I agree with Le Hegaret and with Krill. Issues like Digital Rights Management and consistent appearance across browsers will provide developers and brand owners enough incentive to stick with technologies they know and understand when it comes to actually making money with their web sites. While Apple Computer believes that HTML5 is now, it is clear that HTML5 is yet to come.

Interestingly, in recent months, Adobe has made changes on its own web site to reduce the amount of Flash that is used to display content on its prominent customer-facing pages on its site. You won't notice these changes if you have Flash installed, of course, but instead of seeing those "missing plug-in" messages on your iPad, you'll get a non-Flash version of these pages. While less interesting and not interactive, these pages provide the customer with a more positive experience at adobe.com.

I have written before about HTML5 not being ready for Prime Time. I am glad that I am not alone in thinking that while it's nice to experiment with the chemistry set, it's best to get the descriptions of what's in the bottles first before mixing.
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2 Comments

Great information! i think that's great, i enjoyed reading here.

It's definitely not ready for prime time before browsers start supporting it.

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This page contains a single entry by James Lockman published on October 7, 2010 8:18 AM.

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