You have probably seen the term “HTML5″ if you have read any of the recent articles about Apple and Flash. HTML5 is a new web page coding standard in advanced stages of development. Among other goals, it aims to reduce the need for proprietary plug-ins and add-ons (Flash, Silverlight, Java, etc.).

HTML4 came out more than a dozen years ago, when the web was just a toddler, and it is in serious need of spiffing up. HTML5 introduces new elements and attributes, including <nav> for navigation and <footer> for the bottom of a page. The elements <audio> and <video> will provide additional media functionality. Some old elements, including <font> and <center>, are being dropped in favor of cascading style sheets (CSS). In addition, HTML5 specifies new application programming interfaces (APIs) for drawing, offline storage of data, document editing, and drag-and-drop functionality.

Before: HTML4                                                                         After: HTML5 Read more…