HTML5 - An evolutionary technology

More than two decades after HTML was introduced, we’re still asking questions about what the web is, and what it might become. What kinds of features and applications would we, as users, find fun, useful or even indispensable? What tools do developers need in order to create these great sites and apps? And finally, how can all this goodness be delivered inside a web browser?

These questions led to the evolution of the latest version of HTML known as HTML5, a set of capabilities that gives web designers and developers the ability to create the next generation of great online applications. An example of this can be the introduction of the video tag. Before the video tag, for displaying any kind of video on a HTML page needed separate APIs or Plug-ins. All the goodness of flash and silverlight and many other softwares is combined into HTML5.

All the web browsers are now upgrading to HTML5, CSS3 and Javascript as these have become the new standards of the modern web. The new versions of these browsers can be downloaded from here:

Internet Explorer 9: http://windows.microsoft.com/ie9
Google Chrome: http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/chrome/beta/
Firefox 4: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/beta/
Opera 11: http://www.opera.com/download/get.pl?id=33307&thanks=true&sub=true
Safari 5: http://www.apple.com/safari/

Now, for developers who are interested in developing websites in HTML5, there is an excellent video which can be found here. The presentation used in the video can be downloaded from here. The source code in the video can be downloaded from here. For any queries feel free to contact me at mauhib_iqbal@live.com.

At this time, there are very few tools for designing websites for HTML5. Some of these are:
HTML 5 Intellisense for Visual Studio 2010 and 2008
SVG Intellisense schema for Visual Studio 2010 and 2008
Modernizr
Ai2Canvas Exporter

Developers can use this website to validate their markup.

Some great websites designed in HTML5:
http://joydefinesthefuture.com/
http://agent8ball.com/