HTML5 as a “standard” has always seemed elusive, like it s always a few too many years to completion. Now finally we have a date, if all goes according to plan, 2014 will be the year when HTML5 will reach “Recommendation” status, the equivalent of a “standard”. At this point HTML5 will be “complete”.
[RELATED_ARTICLE]To achieve a recommendation standard, HTML5 needs to have two interoperable implementations ‒ i.e. two browsers that implement HTML5 completely and render it exactly the same way.
While HTML5’s recommendation by the W3C may still be a short while away, it is already in use on a number of websites for video playback (YouTube, Vimeo, Dailymotion, Viddler etc.), for presenting documents (Crocodoc, Scribd, etc.), and gaming,
Even as HTML5 heads towards the finish line, the video debate remains unresolved. There is still no codec mandated by the HTML5 specification, which leaves the HTML5 ecosystem in a very unhealthy place where different browser support different subsets of the common formats.
Additionally, even though a majority of browsers now support HTML5, albeit not completely, the majority of browsers is use are still those that don’t support it.
With all browser vendors, including Microsoft behind the HTML5 push though, 2014 might look like completely different.