HTML5 specs finally finalized

By Chuong Nguyen
published

The World Wide Web Consortium, or W3C, has announced that it has finally finalized the specs for the HTML5 standard after almost eight years of work. This should allow rich content to work seamlessly across desktop and mobile platforms. Though parts of HTML5 have been used by web developers over the years, the final W3C recommendation is now ready.

W3C head Jeff Jaffe said of the standard:

HTML5 brings the next generation of the Web. It wasn't so long ago that the Web was about browsing static documents. Today's Web is a much richer platform. We're now at a stable state that everyone can build to the standard and be certain that it will be implemented in all browsers. If we didn't have complete interoperability, we wouldn't have one Web.

The HTML5 standard may serve as a stepping stone for the future Open Web Platform, which could help drive even more cross-platform web apps in the future, with PC World reporting:

Moving froward, the W3C is developing specifications for real-time communications, electronic payments and application development. It is also creating a set of safeguards for privacy and security.

If you want to view the final specs for HTML5, be sure to visit the W3C.

Are you happy that the W3C has finally sorted out all the standards that go into creating the final recommendation for HTML5 for a richer, cross-platform Internet experience?

Source: W3C, PC World

Chuong Nguyen
Chuong Nguyen

Chuong's passion for gadgets began with the humble PDA. Since then, he has covered a range of consumer and enterprise devices, raning from smartphones to tablets, laptops to desktops and everything in between for publications like Pocketnow, Digital Trends, Wareable, Paste Magazine, and TechRadar in the past before joining the awesome team at Windows Central. Based in the San Francisco Bay Area, when not working, he likes exploring the diverse and eclectic food scene, taking short jaunts to wine country, soaking in the sun along California's coast, consuming news, and finding new hiking trails. 

84 Comments
  • Onto HTML6!
  • That's first thing on tomorrow's agenda.
  • Given the W3C's speed, we can expect the HTML 6 to be approved in 2022-2023. They should just say screw it, and call WebKit the standard. From where I sit, it's pretty obvious nearly all the W3C members will only use a WebKit browser anyway, so why bother with the sham of an "objective" standard any longer?
  • That's not true about webkit and w3c members. For one, Safari is the only "major" browser that still uses webkit. But, aside from that, a large amount of them use Firefox. And on top of that, the W3C purposely puts a mix of people from various companies such as Google, Adobe, Microsoft, and Apple. But, even if 100% of people used webkit you'd need to write specs so developers know how to use features and know how they work. On top of all of that, if IE, Chrome, and Firefox used webkit they'd use a slight variants so they work on their platform (Linux, Windows, OS X) so they would all need specs as well.
  • HTML 5 is the final version for HTML. I don't expect to see another version in the future.
  • Gee, I hope they run the security portion by the NSA for their approval.
  • Silly Wabbit...the NSA is a founding member and already has a seat at the table.
  • Just one seat?
  • Would say it like this: "has a seat AND the table"... :D
  • Unfortunately, they own the room and the door that the table is in.
  • Come on! HTML is just a markup language. It has nothing to do about your privacy.
  • LOL and don't forget to get China's input too
  • Finally now its time to finalize CSS 3.0
  • Counter strike source 3 ;p
  • Does this mean YouTube videos on HTML5 will work now? I always have to force it to flash.
  • Only if the YouTube boys update their code to use html 5.
  • Youtube has had videos on html5 for a while now...
  • Some html5test.com results - Desktop Chrome - 515 / 555 Desktop Firefox - 475 / 555 Desktop Safari - 429 / 555 Desktop IE 11 - 376 / 555 Mobile Chrome (Android) - 490 / 555 Mobile Safari (iOS 8) - 438 / 555 IE 11 (WP 8.1) - 372 / 555 All for Microsoft having their own rendering engine (Trident) but they cannot compete in the HTML5 game if their IE11 has the worst HTML5 compliance on both Desktop and Mobile.
  • Maxthon has a higher score than Chrome kiddo. Lol.... Chrome 37: 512/555 Maxthon 4.4.3: 513/555
  • The inconvenience of these "tests" is that they pick and choose the elements to test, and without a final spec, what's a company to do? Constantly adapt an unfinished spec? No. You pick the priorities and then finish when the standard is finished.
  • The infamous HTML5test. 1. It tests a lot of non-standard HTML5 elements. 2. It only checks to see if a specific implementation exists and doesn't check the QUALITY of that implantation at all. Quantity doesn't automatically mean quality. What I'm trying to say is, don't solely rely on that website to draw conclusions. The real race begins now, with HTML5 being finalized.
  • Good point
  • You forgot Desktop Opera - 508/555
  • And what about BlackBerry ? ;-)
  • @SocalTouch Here run this test instead. That acutally TEST HTML5! http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Performance/Chalkboard/
  • Or this one http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/Performance/Pirates/ IE11 runs cirkles around the other browsers.
  • So the site that is not connected to any browser is somehow being unfair and the one from a company that makes a browser is the one to trust?
  • html5test.com test against non standard elements and even codecs.  As a developer I can say that developing CSS3 and HTML5 apps is better in IE11.
  • Agree
  • Part of that issue is that IE still does major versions whereas Chrome and Firefox just update in the background every couple of weeks.  I'm sure the latest builds of IE12 are much closer to chrome and FF in these measurements.  I'm not sure MS should change this approach since their business customers like to standardize on a specific version of a software.  Also lets be honest, this is becoming much less of an issue for consumers and even web developers.  The fact is, ever since IE9, IE has supported most of the important parts of the HTML5 spec.  And now that HTML5 is finalized, compliance is no longer a moving target.
  • These scores are pretty much irrelevant as there was no HTML5 spec to work off of.  They're just a hand-selected subset of specs, some of which aren't in what was published today.   We need to wait about two-months for the browser developers to pour over the final docs and start an "in earnest" implementation.  Let's see where we are at the start of 2015.  That'll be a more honest comparison of who's "on the ball."   And then we'll need to figure out what a good way to test is.  HTML5test.com may not be the place to go.
  • Finally! This is fantastic news.
  • Great news
  • Seems clearer.
  • Seems out of humor.
  • Cannot up vote from the app!
  • Well what are you waiting for?? Get on the mobile site already!! Nah jk
  • Wow, 8 years...
  • We'll all be dead before Html10 gets finalized.
  • Suck it Adobe!
  • No they won't. They already ditch flash years ago. They only update it for security purpose.
    I'd rather say,"suck it web developers that rely heavily on flash". :3
  • Thank you
  • As a web developer, this is great news! Though note that it's important to recognise HTML5 for what it is: just the markup. Most features that people call 'HTML5' features (sensors, video format support, real-time communication, input methods, touch support, etc) are not actually part of HTML5 and will always be in flux.
  • Yep, like Ajax (that used to be just Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) and now is everything is dynamic.
  • Does this finally mean that all sites will be viewable without flash on mobile devices at some point?
  • Not necessarily
  • Most of the content providers use Adobe Flash and package it in their own proprietary app to view their content.  ABC, CBS, NBC use flash only!   LOL!  That why you cannot view their videos on a mobile device such as a smartphone in a web browser!   Adobe does not have "flash" for mobile devices anymore!
  • Yep, this died on android some time ago. (2.3?)
  • About time. Now for browsers to properly support it and stop doing their own stupid things making web development harder. They can do what they want after they support the full specification.
  • Not so sure developers will ever stop doing their own stupid things, but it's good to have a completed standard.
  • I think he/she was referring to the browsers, so IE, Safari, Google Chrome etc.
  • Html 5 is crap on Windows Phone Youtube
  • I have no problems. Well, maybe the Back stack is somewhat crowded but it's ok.
  • Worked fine for me... Probably something else wrong ....
  • Some of the older version vBulletin forum sites I frequent don't support it. (the embedded YouTube videos don't work using IE with windows phone ...but work fine with safari on iPhone and whatever on android phones) Has been one of the only frustrating things about our browser (IE) on WP really... And I guess it would be up to the admins of said forum sites to update their end to support html5?
  • Can't beat it when things are finally finalised.
  • If only CSS3 was ready
  • Things that are always associated together:
    HTML5
    CSS3
    ECMAScript5
  • PIZZA
  • Possibly
  • Now what we need is for Browser vendors to update their rendering engines to support the finalized spec. bye bye vendor prefixes. Now maybe MS will tone down the useragent string in IE10 Mobile.   Oh, and the rest of the web-dev world will also have to update their sites.  This is just one step down a long road to HTML5 success.
  • That last part being the most important, web developers have to get their shit together and code to an open standard. Every webpage should work perfectly regardless of what browser your visitor has chosen to use. This should be a mantra for these people.
  • Finally.
    I wonder how much of Google's non prefixed code was implemented correctly and if they will bother to fix it if it wasn't.
  • I really wish Webkit would die off...
  • Am I happy? I think that was their job.
  • The US put man on the moon in the '60 and this thing took 8 yr, my goodness.
  • Does that mean google will someday make it a possibility to port YouTube to windows phone? I mean YouTube really is just an html5 wrapper for the site I don't understand how much crap they secure its exclusivity with.
  • Hope it works well on #lumia1041
  • hopefully they could implement it on Internet Explorer for XBox
  • I wish I knew what this means
  • Seems faster.
  • Why the old style XP icon for windows update in the photo? O.o
  • The
  • I hope this is the final nail in the coffin for Flash. I'd really like to see that go by the wayside completely.
  • Now that HTMT5 is finalized will Microsoft use it to Make or be able use a really good OFFICIAL UTUBE app in it's Windows store. last I heard Google and Microsoft were at odds over this issue.
  • Google don't want Microsoft making or supporting it.
  • So explain to me than Why won't www.nerdist.com work on my Lumia 925 when that site is HTNL 5 !! ??
  • Works on my 1520, I think it is something else
  • Also it seems faster than 8 years!
  • Sorry. My OCD is screaming... You mis-spelt forward, 5th paragraph.
  • Probably a little late for this, but hopefully this encourages a few developers to build HTML web pages instead of device-specific apps.   Looking at YOU, transit agencies that hide public transit schedules behind iOS- and Android-only apps!
  • I just wish JavaScript had true class-based, object-oriented code like ActionScript or Unity. Without those, building deep, rich applications like one could do in Flash is just a nightmare.
  • What does this mean in layman's terms? Will webkit still reign supreme or will all mobile browsers begin to look and operate similarly, regardless of the device accessed from (iOS, Android, Windows)?
  • Excellent for non english users who faced many problem to find and use unified codes to set their website in their local language across platforms.