I’ve been hearing about HTML5 being the next big thing and I was tempted to convert all of my pages from XHTML 1.0 to HTML5 to gain experience.
Also, I see that many jobs and employers are looking for HTML5 developers. In fact, HTML5 is the fastest growing job trend according to: Job Trends | Indeed.com . I am looking for a programming/developer job and this job trend is the biggest factor in me wanting to get involved with HTML5, even though there is probably no difference or practicality for my own sites.
The big problem is HTML5 is so new, not as supported and ect. It took me a few years to get the new Windows Vista because I wanted to wait until they fixed the bugs since new things tend to be crappy for awhile…
So what is everyone’s thoughts for getting on the HTML5 bandwagon?
Personally, I think the rush to HTML5 is premature and a little silly. For one thing, it’s not finished yet, and may change, meaning that a lot of sites may be broken down the track. And the web community has suffered before by rushing in before a technology is ready for use (CSS, I’m looking at you).
One of the principles of web standards is to make content accessible no matter what conditions the user faces. At the moment, all browsers require hacks to display HTML5 properly. Worse, it only will work on IE8 and below with the help of JavaScript, and a basic principle of good web design is not to make content depend on JavaScript. It just doesn’t interest me at all at the moment.
I’m keeping up with it on a casual, “looky there what that does!” basis, but I’m not implementing it at all in my work, not yet. The combined standards seem to be going backwards as much as forwards, with the inclusion of all sorts of deprecated tags and contradictory material.
It’s a fad or buzzword, and the majority of those people that are asking for that in their job list - don’t have a clue what HTML5 is, they’ve just heard the name in the press. It is still mainly non-normative anyway. Like was mentioned it’s mainly just market hype and most of the so-called ‘wow factor’ parts require JavaScript to even function anyway. JavaScript is not the answer either.
“My designs incorporate the latest in viral, long-tail Web 2.0 HTML 5 synergistic mashups in a semantic ecology tailored to incentivize my clients’ individual needs in the larger context of a citizen-driven, crowdsourced media folksonomy. In the aggregate. With soy milk.”