HTML5 Gets Promoted to a Standard
It's official: The new web arrives
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has announced that it is promoting the HTML5 specification to Recommendation status, that highest level of approval, which effectively pushes HTML5 to the level of a web standard.
The new HTML5 specification has been in the works for 10 years, and previous drafts have already been adopted by browser and web server vendors, which means the recent announcement is something of a formality. Still, the declaration of victory is a signal to developers and implementors that more changes won’t be coming and the community can move on to other priorities.
In the press announcement, W3C CEO Jeff Jaffe states, “… now that HTML5 is done, W3C should do more to strengthen the parts of the Open Web Platform that developers most urgently need for success.”
HTML5 is an attempt to catch up with the 21st Century reality of the web, with better security and a wealth of new multimedia capabilities. The HTML5 specification began in 2004 through the work of the Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG), with founding members from Apple, Opera, and the Mozilla Foundation. Google, Microsoft, and other companies joined in the development.
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