Why We Should Develop Websites Using HTML5
Though HTML5 has been out for while, that doesn't mean everyone's using it yet. Find out the benefits of the latest iteration of this great markup language.
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Join For FreeA common question asked by clients to their development partner is “Why should I build my app or website with HTML 5” not with simple HTML.
So let’s discuss HTML 5 and why should we use it.
Definition
What Is HTML5?
HTML 5 is the latest Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), the standard programming language for describing the contents and appearance of Web pages.
These days all major browsers (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Opera, and IE) offer HTML5 support, which makes it the newest HTML technology used today.
Here’s a list of some of the amazing benefits of HTML5:
Cross Browser Compatibility
HTML5 is easy to implement and it works with CSS3. Today all browsers support HTML5 tags and even IE6 understands the markup <!DOCTYPE html> and will render the pages correctly.
New DOCTYPE Declaration
The most important fact about HTML 5 is - HTML5 is easy to implement and it works with CSS3 The DOCTYPE declaration for HTML5 is very simple: <!DOCTYPE html>
Improvements in Usability and User Experience
Usability and user experience relate with how well a website or app is designed. We all want better dynamic websites and great looking apps that interact with the user and allows the user to enjoy the functionality, content, etc., instead of just looking at it. HTML5 has several technical enhancements and improved features for web developers. And with HTML5 code, the web developer can easily design better applications and dynamic websites which result in a better user experience.
Heavily Used for Mobile Apps and Games
The adaptability of HTML5 in mobile applications and game development increases as HTML5 web application tools give more flexibility to the web developer in all cases, including user interface (UI), development, using scripts, and others.
HTML5 is also capable of handling multimedia content without the need to install plugins and we can easily develop interactive games with this technology.
Clean Markup and Improved Code
HTML5 has come along with clean markup and clean code that make it more accessible than the previous version(s). HTML 5 allows the web developer and web designer to use the neater code and remove div tag and replace all the div tags with new HTML 5 elements.
Offline Browsing
HTML5 also offers offline browsing, which means that visitors can load certain elements on a web page without an active internet connection. Assume you've visited the site and somehow you are not connected to the internet now or internet connection happens to go down. With HTML5's offline caching, we can still load core elements of the websites and you can view them offline.
HTML5 Is SEO-Friendly When it Comes to Website Crawling and Indexing
Nowadays to gain and retain top rankings in different search engines including Google, the website must be optimized with care and all necessary SEO modules. HTML 5 comes with various attributes and modules that make it easy for web crawlers to search your content and getting it indexed properly, thereby increasing its rankings in search engine search results pages. HTML5 technology provides various features with a wide range of structural elements, semantics, form types, new attributes, and media elements making it easier for digital marketing experts and developers to focus on better search engine optimization techniques and to drive more organic search traffic.
Video and Audio Support
With HTML5 technology, we no longer need to rely on third-party plugins in order to render audio and videos. You can forget about Flash Player and other third party media players and plugins. You can make your videos and audio easily accessible with the new HTML5 <video> and <audio> tags.
Geolocation Support
With the help of geolocation, we can easily find out where we are in the world and easily share that information with people. In the past, if we wanted to detect the location of a client device, first we had to look at the client's IP address, wireless network connection, cell tower of their phone and latitude, and its longitude. But with HTML5, a set of APIs have been developed which effectively allow the client-side device (i.e. your phones, IP, or even your desktop browsers) to retrieve geographic positioning information from JavaScript and make it directly available for your HTML5-compatible browser.
HTML5 improves and enhances the browsing experience.
So why don’t you adopt HTML 5 for your website and mobile apps?
Published at DZone with permission of Ashok Sharma. See the original article here.
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