The next major revision of the HTML standard i.e. web development standard, the HTML 5 is still under construction even though it had been initiated in 2004. The co-director of the HTML 5 said that we may not see the final draft till as late as 2022! But we are ready to wait as the language already provides a lot of features even with its ‘under construction’ status.
5 most prominent features of HTML 5:
Enabling Video embedment
Earlier third party browser plug-ins were required in order to incorporate video elements on a page. Now with HTML 5 video embedment is as easy as working with images. Not just that the language gives you the freedom to manipulate the videos or play with the built in video controls.
Canvas element
The Canvas tag is a JavaScript controlled 2D drawing area, which allows bitmap drawings as well involving simple or complex shapes. Earlier these were possible only through images. The dynamically generated graphics also makes photo compositions possible without any third party assistance.
Geo Location
This feature gives trusted sites access to your location, through the JavaScript on the page. This information may be obtained from different sources be it GPS or network signals Bluetooth WiFi or through the IP address. However to use this feature the application must gain permission from the user.
Application Caches
This feature helps store online applications in offline folders. Stored emails can thus be viewed without using the internet. Google gears, is an implementation of HTML 5 codes for this feature which helps you Gmail offline.
Hyper threading for Web browsers
Web applications, which have to depend on heavy scripts for processing, find this feature especially useful. By using this feature, multiple background threads can be used for processing a web page without affecting their performance.
The HTML 5 code however is not compatible with some browsers like Internet Explorer since it is still in a development stage and due to this reason, he features are still not fully defined. But even then it is very useful for the extra features it already provides which are absent in the previous version.