The internet is still a staple part of most of our days. As I’m sure you are aware, the pages you actually see on a website are all just text – albeit it is specially defined text. Images, video and tools such as flash aside, the web is just text. How web site pages are built is laid out in strict requirements – the actual page is HTML (Hyper Text Mark-up Language) and allows us to tell your browser what to do with all of the text.

HTML is currently at version 4. This was released over a decade ago (and worked on for years before that) in 1999. Everything has moved on since then – PC power, smartphones, tablets, internet speeds and wireless connectivity. Yet HTML 4 has remained the centre of this.

But it is old. It is tired. And we have moved on. We use vast amounts of javascript to make websites fully interactive and update instantly. We use cleaver graphical techniques to get the designs we want onto your sites while still keeping all of the code valid and accessible.

HTML5 is supposed to allow us to do so much more. It has true power and will open up web designers to be even freer with their designs and developers can build websites faster and better than ever before.

There are some major problems to overcome first. The people who look after the HTML standard and tell us what we can do (and tell browser companies what they should do) is called the W3C and they have a bad habit of taking a long time to decide on anything. In the world of the internet when 10 seconds ago is old news, they tend to take years to decide on standards. Everyone agrees that standards need to be correctly discussed and all issues captured before we start using them but there cannot be much excuse for the length of time these standards take to be “Recommended” (which is W3C language for approved).

Work on HTML5 started in 2007 and was due to be ready this year. But it is already months and months behind. A year behind schedule at the last count. Ian Hickson is the man in charge of HTML5 and in a recent interview he said he didn’t expect HTML 5 to be fully complete, signed and sealed until 2022. 12 years? It’s unlikely we’ll have HTML in 12 years. Or at least I’d hope to be on HTML10 by then.

The good thing about the internet though is that it’s run by geeks who can’t wait that long and already most of the browsers in use support HTML5 elements (I say most because Internet Explorer is way behind yet again). Once IE catches up with IE9 then and users start to upgrade then we as developers can start to use some of these new tools even if W3C are still discussing what to call some never-used tag over a coffee on the US east coast.

The Why Do I Care factor…

Ultimately what is possible on the net is dictated by these standards. These new standards give us much more flexibility to bring you ideas, brands and ideas alive across more platforms than ever before with much less time and cost. The sooner we have new standard made official and launched, the sooner we can start to harness their power and offer new exciting possibilities. So keep an eye on HTML5 and start dreaming of what your website could ultimately do for you – and you never know, we might be able to make some of that happen for you today.

If you have a non-IE browser then you should be able to play with some of these examples of the new HTML5 Canvas – a tool which lets us play video, create instant custom animations and much, much more:http://www.chromeexperiments.com/