The internet is a vast place, and it’s always evolving.
You may have heard of HTML 5 and how it’s supposed to be the next big thing, but what is HTML5, and how is it making the internet better?
If you aren’t a web designer, you’re probably not familiar with the term HTML, and other internet lingo like Flash, or Java. HTML stands for Hyper-Text Markup Language, it’s essentially the code you would see behind a website. You can view this code yourself by right clicking this web page and selecting ‘View Source’ from the menu. HTML is responsible for the orientation of content, the size of pictures, backgrounds, and colors on any given web site.
As a company, Natural Networks has been purview to some of the short-commings of these plug-in's as we work with client's to troubleshoot issues they sometimes cause. Natural Networks CloudPBX solution once utilized Microsoft Silverlite, another plug-in which often had problems. However since moving to HTML5, our CloudPBX offer has addressed many problems both for our staff, and our clients.
Websites needed more functionality than HTML can offer
HTML on its own isn’t very powerful, and can’t do much more than adding content and syntax to build a basic website. As the web became more popular, people and companies wanted to do more with their websites. They wanted to play videos, present a slide show, create an online form or survey, and much more. However, HTML wasn’t able to handle doing these tasks on it's own, or wasn’t able to do them very well. Web applications and plugin’s were built for websites and users so they could watch videos, or use other specialized aspects of the webpages they visit.
Some of the many web add-on’s we are still familiar with today include Adobe Flash. This was commonly used to play video based content on websites, or for creating actionable forms that customers could fill out and submit. Flash was notoriously buggy, and vulnerable to exploits. CSO online writes, based on a 2015 analysis of over 100 exploit kits and known vulnerabilities, Adobe Flash was the unfortunate winner of the most exploited product. Java is another variant which became popular in the same way Flash did, but it too was very buggy and prone to security vulnerabilities.
HTML5 helps eliminate vulnerable Plug-In's
HTML 5 is a new web standard which has slowly been infiltrating the internet, wrights Gizmodo contributor John Herrman. This long-awaited update is expected to help do away with unnecessary plug-in’s like Flash, Java, and others. One of the great benefits of HTML5 is that it allows applications to run in a native sense through your browser. If you are using Firefox, Chrome, Opera, or even Internet Explorer, you can expect to be able to utilize HTML5 sites as they become more prevalent. Video intensive websites like Hulu, and YouTube were some of the first to recognize and ultimately move to the new web standard.
HTML5 is still semi- new, and sites across the web are slowly transitioning as it’s benefits become more recognized. Many major companies like Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Apple have already taken steps to begin implementing HTML5 where they can. As HTML5 is codified, it will become the new standard which will be a welcome change among the Internets developers and users alike.
