What Is HTML5

At the beginning of 2021, all popular web browsers stopped supporting Adobe Flash technology. Therefore, the operation of many websites, web services, apps, and games was suspended. This happened due to the elaboration and global introduction of HTML5. Having once heard of such a technology, many users decided to learn more about HTML5 – what it is, why Flash-based apps stopped working, etc.

HTML5 – what is it?

At the dawn of the World Web’s creation, certain standards had to be devised that could enable websites and numerous content that gets published on the Internet to be displayed correctly on various devices and in various browsers. It is then that a simple and multi-purpose language was invented and subsequently got the abbreviated name HTML. The acronym stands for Hyper Text Markup Language.

Such a markup language started to be actively used to make all the data in the World Web have a standardized structure and visualization mode. However, as the technology advanced, the need arose for revising HTML. That is why the first version of this language was replaced by the second one and then the third and the fourth which was released in 1999.

HTML5

All these versions were based on the idea to offer various specifications and general tools that were soon adopted by the developers of browsers, web applications, etc. That is, the creators tried to combine all the popular solutions, and HTML adapted to their needs and the existing realities. However, over time the difference in certain tools became so considerable that the 4th HTML versions could no longer serve as a one-size-fits-all tool. It was then the 5th version was released, being designed as a unique and universal markup language. To understand why it became so indispensable, let us study HTML5 features briefly.

Specific nature of the new HTML version

If we look at HTML5’s capabilities and compare them to those of the 4th version, we will immediately see the following differences:

  1. This language allows a symbiosis between XHTML and HTML standards.
  2. It has enlarged and improved web documents’ markup.
  3. It has introduced a unified API for sophisticated web developments.
  4. It has added new syntax: <audio>, <video>, <canvas>.

The syntax improvement helped eliminate the need for third-party plugin software and API and at the same time simplified the development and display of multimedia objects. Having realized well in advance what HTML5 meant for the contemporary Internet, Steve Jobs back in 2010 wrote an official letter in which he predicted the deactivation of Adobe Flash plugins and the elimination of other web technologies that had become obsolete.