Is HTML5 turning into a buzzword?

June 8, 2010 · by Espen André Øverdahl

An article published yesterday on PC Pro titled "Rivals slam Apple's HTML5 claims" you can read that: "Apple has raised the ire of rival web developers by creating an HTML5 showcase that can only be used in its own Safari browser". Further on, the article cites Haavard, an Opera employee, who wrote on his own personal blog that: "One almost gets the impression that "HTML5" is just a buzzword to Apple."

There seems to be no clear conception of what HTML5 is and isn't. Bruce Lawson, an Opera employee, has used his incredible design skills to visually explain what's HTML5.

What's your take on all of this? Are you following the debate?

Readers' comments 16

Left under the original article, as archived.

indahrinaldiTuesday, June 8, 2010 1:13:37 PM
like it
Charles SchlossTuesday, June 8, 2010 1:14:08 PM
I know that HTML 5 won't be a final spec for a few years, but parts of it are final and that is what is being shown off in some browsers
lucideerTuesday, June 8, 2010 1:37:26 PM
HTML5 is a buzzword because it was designed to be a buzzword, so Apple are really just using it correctly.

If WHATWG cared about the pedantry of what is or isn't included under the HTML5 umbrella, then the "Hyper Text MARKUP LANGUAGE version 5" would actually be a markup language spec. - and the likes of DOM3, canvas 2D API, web workers, SSE would all be in separate specs, with separate spec editors.
Artur „Jurgi” JurgawkaTuesday, June 8, 2010 2:42:23 PM
What? Everything Apple make, works only on Apple. Even cross-standards, as we can see. They are just following their line…
TamilTuesday, June 8, 2010 2:55:27 PM
http://files.myopera.com/Tamil/Smilies/Yes.gif -
Dark FurieTuesday, June 8, 2010 3:51:45 PM
What debate? Apple started talking about HTML5 because they wanted a reason to keep Flash off their devices, and saying that future web technologies would make Flash irrelevant (since three years ago) was the way they played it. Of course, they're absolutely right and have in no way started this shit up as a way to cover the fact that the only reason they don't want Flash around is that they own a competing technology.
Witold BarylukTuesday, June 8, 2010 4:08:12 PM
I really hate Flash (as Linux user especially), and I fully support HTML5 as a new standard. But HTML5 is anyway buzzword. Apple is just ignorant and not complay to standard and performs stupid assumption that only they support HTML5 based on user agent, and not proper capability detection.

Similary with other developers, they asume that something HTML5 feature X is only in browser Y and Z (always forgoting O), so it code so, and after a year, we see that also in A, B, C and O it doesn't work but should as they have support for it.

Similary with HTML5 is a problem that it is just a bunch of some APIs , elements and HTML extensions. I think this is good, but it is not good to call this messa as a whole HTML5 because it is not very so tightly connected as in Flash which is single environment. As I'm for "HTML5" way i of course find it is good. But it is just nonsensical that browser X supports HTML5 because there no such thing as HTML5, there are separate elements which are supported from it. Call it audio, video, geolocation, asynchronous javascript, workers, eventsource, canvas 2d, svg, css3 with transitions, border radius, caching, local storage. This are just a separate techniques!

Other argument why HTML5 is used as a buzzword is becuase HTML5 is automatically compared to Flash (hey, even I did so in first part of this post). But they are completly different things, can coexists, and have other ways of performing similar tasks. Of course there are milions reasons why Flash is bad, but claiming that HTML5 is good now is nonsensical also. HTML5 supports in most browser is still getting tracktion, and can be done incrementally in some way to allow simpler addoption both in browser and usage of this features by web devlopers.

I think Apple is main company to blame for this situation. They started war with Adobe, just using words (and sometimes laying), not real technical comparission. Also second front is making stupid things, like comparing some "HTML5" implementations to Flash, in case of performance or designer tools. This is stupid becasue there is still lack of polish and optimizations in HTML5 implementations, they are alpha with many bugs, and standard is still in flux. Also designer tools are still not so mature, but even Adobe have some programs to help design for SVG or CSS3! Last week alpha releas of smokescreen just make this point more clear. And there will be more and more tools dedicated for this. Because standard is more open and everyone can easly do so.
Artur „Jurgi” JurgawkaTuesday, June 8, 2010 7:52:20 PM
Originally posted by movax:

I really hate Flash

I don't like Flash too. But Apple's strategy is even more owful for me.
■Wednesday, June 9, 2010 9:48:57 AM
And now the new iPad with Internet inside and even HTML5 upgrade for FREE***

***FREE Upgrade entitles 1 (one) user for a 1 (one) year of free subscription to use HMTL5 on 1 (one) iPad. $59.95 / year there after.
Cutting SpoonWednesday, June 9, 2010 5:05:00 PM
I honestly think Flash is great. No other plugin has had such a long and successful run. Mobiles are getting to the point where they have the hardware power to run Flash without choking. Now, there's plenty of things that we already don't need Flash for, and there will soon be even more that we don't need Flash for. Yet "has Flash" is a very easy capability test that indicates the presence of a whole band of features.

Perhaps it is a monoculture nightmare, but it's kept the web running for ten years. Apple should consider that before advertising the availability of a new prison.
Charles SchlossWednesday, June 9, 2010 5:56:15 PM
Originally posted by hellspork:

Now, there's plenty of things that we already don't need Flash for

Like at lot of the ads on the web, I am not of FLash my self becuase of haow sh**y it runs on my computer and others I have seen I have gotten to 205º f temp just from watch a hulu video (flash based) Also there will be a critical Flash player Update tomorrow

The thing is with IE's very little HTML 5 support may slow it down (IE 6 is dead in 2014 by Microsoft) tho that did not start a few websites from already playing with it, there are quite a few that show of some of the cool things that can be done with HTML 5 (Apple's page does not count(browser sniffing fail)) The issue with flash and other plug ins is that you have to keep them update if you want to use them. Flash has a huge advantage over Silverlight and that is the browser support (Microsoft 'standard' support)
Cutting SpoonThursday, June 10, 2010 6:15:42 PM
SVG can do some great things, but it does not have audio integration and some animations are very slow. Opera can do aPNG, but this is a special case. The worst thing with
jehovajahSunday, June 13, 2010 10:51:01 AM
Good to think about these things as marketing is so important for the popularisation and development of a platform. Risc Os is a case in point even though the actual base for risc os is huge nobody is really that interested outside of the risc os community, how that came about is for you to research, but marketing played a key role at a time when understanding of the issues was small. Html5 has a way to go, so no wonder people who are in a powerful position want to high jack it for their immediate gain.I vote for opera because it has what i want and need and find useful in an intuitive way, not because it is a flagwaver. The latest browser for the mac scored 129/300 on the test by the way, so i will test the safari browser and see what that gets.

All the specs and standards have given me an increasingly satisfying experience on the web, but in particular the on2/google driven video innovations over the past years. The monetisation of the web is what drives these protectionist behaviours, and though we can influence we cannot coerce businesses to toe the line fully. Microsft did not and Apple will not. Open source behaviour is too hippyish a value for big business to tolerate. Google may be an exception and the only real force for pushing for adherence to the dream, as its business prowess is entirely a different model which encourages innovation and success on an evolutionary model. If html 5 provides an evolutionary advantage and not just a business one i think we will see google being all over it in a big way. In the meantime opera can do it bit by being smart and innovative and independent, in that sense not unlike Apple.
jehovajahSunday, June 13, 2010 11:16:42 AM
I have just tested safari 4 on the html standards andi it too gets 129/300 but 2 extra bonus points. It is clear that the site is promoting safari 5 and encouraging downloads of the browser, so it may no be really saying anything more than that! I.e, download and experience safari 5. We will have to wait and see .
jehovajahSunday, June 13, 2010 11:25:21 AM
The version on offer does not include mac os x before leopard even! so i can't test it on my mac! This leads me to think that it is mostly a marketing ploy rather than anything to do with Apple's core policy and values. I will just point out that safari 4 is noticeably slower than opera 10.5 on my mac tiger set up, so way to go opera!
fjpoblamSunday, June 13, 2010 9:57:48 PM
AAPL's support of Flash and HTML5 are two separate issues. AAPL's support of Flash I won't discuss: that is a bickering among corporations.

By contrast, HTML5 is a standard for web page structure description. I use the term "HTML" to describe the standard, except when "HTML5" *must* be used to distinguish certain very specific characteristics from HTML4.01.

HTML5 offers semantic improvements over HTML4.01. These provide improved logic in page structure, efficiency of maintenance, lesser bandwidth in download, mobile browser advantages, CSS3 advantages, and other advantages. With use of a simple javascript shiv, and some careful coding for "graceful degrade", there is no reason one cannot use HTML5 in current websites.

So, yes, you may have heard the term "HTML5" frequently enough to consider it a "buzzword". (This depends, of course, upon what *you* mean by, "buzzword".) But the term "HTML5" has a very specific meaning, and the W3 and w3schools have web pages devoted to its detailed description.