So, you have visitors, and you are thinking about changing your site over to HTML5. Is it going to be worth it ? That depends on your visitors. As HTML5 becomes the overall new standard for all websites, yours will of course need changing. Will it affect your search engine rankings if you switch to HTML5 ? What it will do is give at least one search engine more to index. The quick answer is that there is no quick answer. Suffice it to say that it will not hurt nor help your search engine rankings at this point in time.

The things that make a web page get a good rank on a search engine are controllable in the two forms of search engine optimization; “on page” and “off page” optimization. The on page type has not changed. Using the title tag, metadata, header tags, correct keyword placement, alt tags and all the rest are going to stay relevant. It may even come about in the future that meta data will be more acceptable. For now, the “header”, “footer”, “nav” and other new HTML5 tags that tell a browser what is what on a page are not going to help in getting higher rankings in a search engine. If you know much about the internet, this could change tomorrow.

At the present, use HTML5 where you think it will be utilized. That means by your visitors, not by search engine robots. Search engine robots that are not HTML5 ready will just have to catch up. If the visitors of your site use browsers that are HTML5 compatible it should be an easy switch for your website. If you do not know how to check that, the information will be with your website’s “logs”, something the web host should be offering you for free.

Some good news for those who have already made the HTML5 switch is that the microdata is being indexed. The larger search engines are taking into consideration this part of HTML5, microdata, but are not making it hurt or help your search engine rankings, yet. They are waiting for a more widespread use of HTML5 before they start adjusting their own algorithms. If webmasters start misusing, even honestly, the microdata, they ( the search engines ) of course will be first to know. As always, take the high road when optimizing a web site for the robots. It makes it easier for all of us online.

Look for the HTML5 standard to grow. While it does, this allows a webmaster to experiment with new techniques. Every niche will have those who are usually tech savvy, not tech savvy, or somewhere in between. Pitch a site to please them wherever they are in their digital life and you will have success.

The “section” element is a quirky tag. It confuses even those with lots of experience in making websites. It is a good thing for you to be here to avoid these same problems yourself. You will not have to unlearn anything and you will feel much better about your online prowess.

To make it clearer, it helps to quote the ones making the standard. They say; “Examples of sections would be chapters, the various tabbed pages in a tabbed dialog box, or the numbered sections of a thesis. A Web site’s home page could be split into sections for an introduction, news items, and contact information.” That is to say that if you think of your web site as a book, with corresponding pages, the section tag can be considered to be similar to chapter headings. Just do not think of them as headings, since headers on a web page are not going to be the same as a section. There is another new tag in HTML5 for “headering” a page.

Another example of correctly using the section tag ( element ) is to think of it as somewhat of a containing element, but not enough to use it as a “div” ( division ) tag. The div tag is to be used to style the page, not to be used as any sort of content generator. The words “division” and “section” are closely related in the English language, but they do have their differences. This is where the hair-splitting comes in handy with HTML5. Use the div tag where you want to change presentation, use the section tag where you want to change content. There you pretty much have the whole CSS and HTML layout presented in a nutshell. Good webmasters separate content from presentation by using CSS3 and HTML5 in their respective manners.

Yet another example of using the section tag correctly is to connect it with heading tags. If a part of the page is going to have the “H1″ tag used, weigh it in your mind beforehand and see if you think it deserves a “chapter” ( section ) designation. If so, this would be a good place to use the section tag. The new HTML5 “article” tag may need to be used instead of a section tag, but the article tag is not the focus of this article. If you think about that last sentence it will help you realize when to use the section tag over an article tag. The W3C also makes this distinction in their standard. They say; “Authors are encouraged to use the article element instead of the section element when it would make sense to syndicate the contents of the element.” That makes sense since the internet is a connected place. Others may want to use or link to your work. Your site does have an RSS feed, right ?

The overarching rule is to think of HTML5 as a tool still under development. It is an unfinished work. The growing pains are here with us now, and are being smoothed out as each week goes by. It may even be formally ready for prime time before 2022.

Let’s start with what HTML5 can not do for you. One thing that HTML5 can not do for you is update your browser. If you are using an old browser including an old mobile browser on your smartphone you will not be able to benefit from HTML5. One of the most HTML5 compliant web browsers is about to hit the market. It is Internet Explorer 9. If you are a Windows user, you are going to want to upgrade to version 9 just as soon as it is available. Other versions for those who do not like Windows are Firefox 3.6.3, Google Chrome 4.1 and Opera 10.53.

Okay, back to the question; “What can HTML5 do for me ?”. This is a new standard that webmasters and those who make the web are hammering out. At the moment, it is so new that about all it will do is make some neat video and graphics happen on your computer or smartphone that did not happen before. But looking into the future, it is probably going to replace many of those apps that people are buying or getting for free from Apple or other mobile application markets. You do use your smartphone on the web, right ? If you do not have a smartphone, that is okay. You can still access some things on your PC, Linux or Mac using HTML5 that you will be impressed with.

One is document programs. Open office is a downloadable free software that allows you to use and create documents in popular formats. It is created in Java, a language and platform owned by Oracle. What if you did not have to download things like that ? If you wanted to modify and view documents and not have to download anything, HTML5 will be able to do that for you in the near future. The same goes for graphics. Your browser will be able to act like a downloadable program when HTML5 ( the W3C ) and webmasters finally get their heads together. One that is being worked on now is called Vworker. It is in development as of this writing.

The graphics programs that HTML5 will give your computer are also under construction. Without having to download anything, you will be able to see a page on your computer screen that works like Adobe Photoshop. It will be some time before it is as featured as Photoshop, but we are still looking at the future. More likely an online Paint Program will be popping up before something as elaborate as Photoshop is available. It is expected that Gimp, the free graphics program will be taking the lead in this area.

Look for other neat things to pop into your computer soon thanks to the new HTML5 standard. HTML5 is going to be worked on for quite a few years yet.

The people who own Youtube have updated their site. That would be Google, the owners of the world’s largest video sharing site. They have been at work changing the code that people use to share the Youtube videos with the rest of the world. You know that code, the one that says “embed” by it. Back in 2010 Google launched their support for HTML5 and now they want to use iframes instead of flash based object tags. If you are not a webmaster that is a piece of big news. Iframes change the way a search engine looks at things. It separates a page from its iframed content. This is the major difference in the new code change at Youtube. It takes some people by surprise, since it has not been much time since Google actually adopted HTML5 on their site. That was last January, 2010.

A video on a web page that uses flash content can be indexed by major search engines and set in its place in search results. Iframes are not all that great for getting indexed by search engines. The good news for those who are resistant to the HTML5 change is that the iframes do not have to be used. The old “object” tag is still available, but probably for a limited time. What has happened is that the iframe format is the default setting now. Those involved in video marketing are going to want to take note of this change, since it will affect them in particular.

The thing that will show Google how quickly their change towards HTML5 will be adopted is the internet surfers themselves. Browsers that are not HTML5 compliant will not be able to use the new “video” tag that HTML5 possesses. They will not be able to use ( or see ) the “canvas” tag either, since this is also a new part of HTML. Google has their own browser software that is nominally compliant, but ahead of some companies like Microsoft. They called it Chrome. Google recently left off trying to make the H.264 video format their browser’s choice for video compliance. The other choice is the open source Ogg software. The current choice by many people, around 85 percent of them, is flash. Flash is a well seasoned format from Adobe. It has been on the web for 13 years. It is not going to go away just because Google chooses to make a quick break for HTML5.

The new iframe format at Youtube may be HTML5 friendly, but it may or may not usher in what they want soon. HTML5 just got through receiving a new logo for its existence from W3C. It may be the thing over the Youtube change that makes HTML5 more of a reality for web users. Look for HTML5 to be fully adopted by 2022 or a bit sooner.

Since browsers have existed and people have used them to search for things on the internet, HTML has existed. The person who created the world wide web was Tim Berners-Lee, a physicist. He was instrumental in creating the HTML specification ( or standard ) that has now advanced to version “5″. He started the effort back in 1989. Now we have this latest version that has been talked about for a long time, but with not much traction or results. The basic problem is selfishness.

If you knew you could help the world, and there was no way the world could help you in return, would you do it ? Apparently, some people who work in video will not. The new HTML5 standard includes a new tag, the “video” tag. While browser makers are ready to follow the lead of the W3C and WHATWG, there are still challenges to full agreement on video standards. The two video codecs that were chosen, “Ogg Theora” and “H.264″ seem to have created a digital log jam. They can not decide on which codec, so none is being chosen.

The first, Ogg, is open source, and its business format is non-profit. It does receive funding from Mozilla, the makers of the Firefox browser. This, of course, would bias Mozilla, the maker of one of the world’s most popular browsers, to want this video codec standard to be the one that is chosen for the HTML5 standard. The second codec, H.264 is not open source nor a non-profit entity. It is maintained by the ISO Moving Picture Experts Group and those who want to use their codec must pay licensing fees. Currently, not many people want this one as “the” HTML5 codec, but the ones who do have deep pockets. They are Google and Apple. They claim that Ogg may have hidden patents and does not have the quality needed to be an HTML5 standard. That is the current state of affairs, with the “big guys” wanting H.264 and all the rest voting for Ogg Theora. Is this easy to fix ? Yes, it is. The ISO group just needs to lower their licensing fee to something ridiculously low, perhaps for one dollar. They also need to grant immunity of patent infringement to anyone who wants to license it.

The HTML5 standard is now estimated to be ready for the world in 2022. That is a sincere testament to the inflexibility of those who are influencing the standard. At the moment it is open for anyone who wants to contribute, but not many “everyday” people know that. The web is something started by two opposite lines of thinking, the US military ( ARPANET ) and Tim Berners-Lee, a man who believes in openness. Hopefully the outcome will convene sooner than 2022, since the world is waiting.

HTML5 is a strange name that most may just ignore because of the technical nature of it. They are not aware of the first standards of HTML, so this one is the same. It simply represents the next standard of web page code. HTML is the language behind every web page on the planet, and this is level “5″, the most modern one. Now that you know about the background, what exactly is it going to do for you, the web surfer ? Believe it or not, pretty much everything.

Right now, the web has been undergoing a large change from being something that happens in the bedroom, office or living room, to something that happens on the bus, on the way to work, or even in the air ( on an airplane ). Going from a box the size of a sink to a device that fits in the pocket was a great advancment. This is where you will be touched. The current trend is moving rapidly towards the deployment of smartphones. More than likely if you are young and female, and from the United States, you want one. About five years ago, no one had heard of one.

Despite the internet being able to do a lot more than just three things, nevertheless just three things are usually happening on the web. They are social networking, email, and playing games. HTML5 is going to touch all three areas. The gaming in particular is going to touch many lives. Hardly anyone can resist an addicting video game. One in particular that has risen from obscurity to number one is Angry Birds. The game, as it stands, started out as a game for mobiles. It has to be downloaded. HTML5 will change that. With HTML5, all you do is access a web page and the game is automatically played. This frees up the memory space on your smartphone or other computer.

Email will be touched the same way. New HTML5 apps will take care of email much better than static web pages do now. You will be able to use a touch screen and check what you want to do with emails. You will be able have your own server ( computer ) with email ability and actually not have to see targeted ads anymore. Privacy will be restored, and hackers will be sad.

The social networking aspect will be greatly changed. There already exist Facebook alternatives that can be downloaded to your mobile phone ( Diaspora ). But with HTML5 you will have the creativity and imagination of a thousand Mark Zuckerbergs at your fingertips. How will you ever decide which is best ? Probably on services, because HTML5 will make the internet a place where you no longer have to download anything.

You will be able to watch video easier, listen to audio easier, create your own web site easily, all with the tools that HTML5 will provide to webmasters who will then provide them to you. Everything that currently has a “middle man” will lose that “middle man” and your cell provider will more than likely just be an ISP ( Internet Service Provider ), with help from HTML5. How can you help bring this about ? Simply by locating a web browser that is HTML5 compliant. They are starting to show up more and more these days.

From the days of IE6 to now, the road has been long for the number one browser in the world. Back when the html standards were more forgiving, IE6 reigned as king. As time went on, webmasters found IE6 to be one of the biggest headaches to design for. As one person puts it; “IE6 is one of the banes of my existence.”. Internet Explorer 7 was better and included some much-needed security updates. IE8 came along in March of 2009 and was hyped as “one of the fastest” browsers on the market. It also had a great improvement in following web standards. Webmasters were beginning to smile again.

Now, both the web standards and Microsoft are changing. This time it gets better, because millions, perhaps billions of people will benefit. The web is adopting, or rather, is being adopted by those with web browsers on their mobile phones. The extra millions who are accessing the web using these smartphones and other devices need standards. HTML5 is the result and Internet Explorer 9 is coming to their rescue. Smartphones have been said to be the reason why the handset industry was not affected by the present economic crisis. People know what they want, and it looks like they want power in a small device that comes with voice.

Internet Explorer 9 is being pushed forward as a champion of web standards, specifically HTML5 standards. A test for conformance was recently given by the Worldwide Web Consortium to the top web browsers. The browsers used were Google Chrome 7, Safari 5.0, Firefox 4 beta 6, Opera 10.6 and IE9. The browser that closest complies with web standards from this group is IE9.

Now that Microsoft is back in the limelight with their browser, they are criticizing their adversaries. Microsoft claims they can render animations in HTML5 twelves times faster than Chrome 5. The impressive performance brought some new publicity to Microsoft. The “Test Drive” site for IE9 has received more than 16 million visitors. Microsoft worked together with IMDB ( Internet Movie Database ) to create seamless play for videos. Videos can be played natively within the browser. They also collaborated with Amazon to do the same thing. Microsoft has launched some videos of their own to demonstrate the enhanced abilities of their new browser.

Microsoft is “betting the farm” on HTML5, but it is also interesting to see how they are handling flash. The news on that is they are doing the same they have for years; they are using a plugin. That means flash support has not changed from the first days of IE6. Flash is going to be around for a while longer, side by side with HTML5, thanks to the new browser coming out of Microsoft soon. There is no firm date set for its release to the public, but the beta version is already out.

Those who already know that silverlight, a work from Microsoft, has pretty much abdicated to html5 may wonder why there even needs to be a comparison between it, html5 and flash. The reason is simply for information and to help those who still need to know what silverlight does. Microsoft says it is too early to do comparisons, since html5 is not fully approved. But, it is interesting, so people do it anyway.

With silverlight, the advantages are not all that varied from flash. silverlight makes very detailed graphics and things that can be done even without a browser. With the ability to stand on its own, it will be able to run on other platforms. Right now, silverlight is even designed to support the Google Chrome browser “officially”. Some of the drawbacks that silverlight has are that it could be considered a plugin, and as such Microsoft could end up charging for it. It therefore could not be considered “open” to use in the future, if just one provider, Microsoft, wants to make a few bucks off of it in the future. silverlight has system requirements. These do not exist with html5, but large videos and other large files on a web page will always be digested based on internet connection speed, user agent, and processor speed.

How about flash, how does it shape up against html5 ? This seems to be the question of the year, as flash is as ubiquitous as rain in Spring. Flash is another plugin that has been around for years and that most browsers work well with. It has a reputation of being “heavy” on processor usage and large in file size. Adobe has addressed this issue as of late, but not many studies have confirmed it yet. Some are saying that flash 10.2 is ten times faster than the 10.1 version. Flash is experiencing 85 percent penetration of the internet at the moment, so its focus on becoming faster is a big deal. The problem of being under control of one company, Adobe, and therefore perhaps becoming a chargeable item is probably not going to happen. Flash has been around too long for free, it is unlikely Adobe is going to start charging for it. The problem with flash is pretty much one company, Apple, who say that it causes their browser to crash. Other than that, flash is just as good quality as html5 in graphics ( maybe better ) and, as stated, already popular.

The html5 standard has been worked on for years. It became a working draft back in 2008. It is called the “open standard” of the web, since it is the language of every web page. It is basic to the daily operation of the web hence it is much more important than either flash or silverlight. The graphics that are currently available with html5 are under the quality of flash or silverlight. It is also hampered by its own contributors. The contributors are from large corporations that are themselves enemies of each other. Apple, Google, Microsoft and other company employees are both contributing to the engineering of html5. This hinders its progress. The biggest hindrance to html5 is browser compatibility. Microsoft is taking the lead in this regard and IE9 will be one of the most html5 compliant browsers in the world. With this leadership from Microsoft, a major software and browser maker, the future of html5 looks bright and it looks set to grow as other large companies embrace it.

For the longest time, webmasters have thought that the only local storage they could put on a browser was a cookie. Not so. Internet Explorer Six, believe it or not, had a working model of local storage from ten years ago. No, they did not have an HTML5 setup, but they had the right idea. Microsoft called it “userdata” and each domain visited would have a set amount of local storage assigned to it based on user preferences. Fast forward to now, and the idea ( the element ) in HTML5 is aptly named; “localStorage”.

Not all browsers are yet equipped to handle the localStorage element ( tag ), but they are coming along nicely. Firefox version 3.5 and up support this element. Mobile Safari supports it, as well as Internet Explorer 8 and upcoming version 9. If a browser is not going to support the localStorage, such as earlier Opera versions, the cookie option is still going to be available. A cookie can be used in a limited scenario where not much storage space ( 4096 bytes ) is going to be used. It can not be thought of as permanent, since computers have software, and sometimes users, that delete cookies. The localStorage element is much more robust and supports large arrays ( databases ) of information.

The localStorage is for data that is intended to be left on the browser indefinitely. For example, upon the first visit to a website, the visitor can enter their name into a small form. During future visits, their name can be displayed on the same website over and over without a need for asking. There are other examples, such as the ability to detect the presence ( or lack thereof ) of a network cable. The HTML5 localStorage application can then change a blog from functioning online to functioning locally.

Some developers have sneakily been creating HTML5 apps that copy what downloaded apps do. All the graphics, CSS, javascript and what not are are installed in localStorage to function and look like a piece of software. The type of device accessing the page is not important, just the browser. If the browser is HTML5 compliant, everything runs as designed, since it is in the browser, not on the computer memory. This could be thought of as “write once, run anywhere”. If that phrase sounds familiar, it came from the programming language called Java. All the tools are there already in HTML5, the only thing holding back HTML5 apps are the browser manufacturers. Microsoft is said to be creating a winner in IE9.

The localStorage element is accompanied sometimes by a “sessionStorage” tag that does what it’s namesake says. It is a temporary way to store data in the browser, as opposed to the permanent one; localStorage. An important new aspect for web developers to be thinking about is HTML5 security using these new tags, but that is another topic for a later day.