It's about darn time!

I am working on a site redesign and am pretty excited about the process. One of the best trends in web development is the interlocking technologies of JQuery, CSS 3, and HTML which form the group of technologies collectively known as HTML5.  In this issue, I want to speak briefly about why HTML5 is such a big deal and why you, as a small business person, should pay attention.

I have been working in the web business for over 15 years.  During that time, I saw technologies come and go.  One thing that never changed was that web browsers from different manufacturers behaved differently.  Internet Explorer treated the way pages were displayed differently than Firefox.  It was and still is a mess.   But things are looking better thanks to the HTML5 technologies and a strong push for standards across all web browsers.  They will never be perfect, but they are getting better.  For instance, rounded corners no longer require graphic arts wizardry and countless HTML and CSS hacks to place a simple design element on a page with round corners.  

What does this mean to your business? First, HTML5 technologies finally make it possible to build one website and have it display differently for any screen resolution.  So, your company website will look good on a smartphone, tablet, and desktop web browser.  It also means that changes to your website can be made swifter to meet market needs.   Next, JQuery and JQuery Mobile make your website behave more like client-server applications of old.  Now, you do not have to wait for round trips to the server or database refreshes when you only want to hide an element on the page.  Finally, HTML5 is treated as a development environment for Windows 8 applications and other mobile environments.  I consider this progress because Apple requires iOS and Visual C to do development work, Android requires Java, and Windows 8 requires Visual Studio and C# or Visual Basic.

HTML5 is a significant development and an ideal choice for a small or medium sized business and its technology choices.  Write to us, and we will tell you more.  

I am glad that we are at this point of web development after fifteen years.  It should not have taken this long.

Until next time.