The Inquirer-Home

Microsoft claims HTML5 is important

Says IE 9 does it better
Fri Oct 29 2010, 15:34

PERHAPS REALISING THAT industry standards are the way forward, Microsoft has started to promote HTML5.

Although HTMl5 is far from being a finalised standard, just about everyone, from browser developers to users, are eagerly awaiting the finalisation of what is being promoted as "the next version of the web". Now it seems that Microsoft, which traditionally prefers a go-it-alone strategy when it comes to industry standards, has joined in to sing the praises of HTML5.

In a talk at the Vole's PDC 2010 conference, Giorgio Sardo, senior technical evangelist at Microsoft waxed lyrical about what HTML5 can bring for developers and users. Sardo even went so far as to say that HTML5 isn't just a "marketing message", that it is a critical component and it is "very important to make it right".

Representatives from Microsoft, IBM and Apple chair the W3C HTML working group that is in the process of defining the HTML5 standard. Aside from pushing HTML5, which isn't particularly hard given the failings of popular plug-in software such as Adobe's Flash Player, Sardo didn't waste the opportunity to promote the performance of Microsoft's upcoming Internet Explorer 9 (IE 9) web browser.

Apparently the latest beta release of IE 9 has managed to pass more CSS 2.1 tests than Firefox 4 beta 6, Opera 10.70 and Safari 5.0.2. 

In a separate announcement, the Vole claimed that it had managed to shift 10 million copies of its IE 9 beta in the first six weeks of its availability. Apparently this is because of the "significant improvements in browsing that IE9 brings to the web", not just IE 8.

All this talk of embracing HTML5 is good news for those involved in developing websites or just viewing them. It might mean that developers don't have to spend hours checking whether Microsoft's browsers render their code correctly. For users it should mean greater functionality without the need to install cumbersome browser plug-ins.

If Microsoft is serious about embracing real industry standards in some of its other products then perhaps the Vole might be able to begin shaking off its image as a bully that runs roughshod over legitimate standards to promote its own proprietary, closed software and interfaces. µ

 

Share this:

Comments
@@Vicky

MS's partners will have dictated the shipping schedule, and MS will update the O/S to manage the imposed need for adding key features such as a newer browser, cut&paste, etc.

Clearly WP7 could not be released with IE9-beta, and equally clearly MS could not delay WP7 any longer.

Silverlight is NOT a "failed format" and remains a key technology for MS, and in particular WP7.

team.silverlight.net/announcement/pdc-and-silverlight/

posted by : Fred, 01 November 2010 Complain about this comment
@vicky

if you knew anything at all then you would realise that WP7 is far from finished. As iOS and Android before it, WP7 has been released without some quite "key" features. There is an update coming at the end of the year/early next year which will include Flash support. There will also be a lot of other functionality improvements in the first update. Yes it doesn't support these things now, but that's because it's a very raw OS right now.

posted by : OliverHJ, 01 November 2010 Complain about this comment
Windows Phones cannot handle web apps

@Fred - Microsoft based its Windows Phone 7 on the now failed Silverlight format.

However, the point is that these dysfunctional phones cannot use Silverlight, or Flash, or even HTML5 in the web browser.

That means they can't run any web apps. And while Microsoft crows about how good HTML5 is, Windows Phone 7 has no HTML5 ability.

Windows Phone 7 is the only platform unable to run any web apps at all.

posted by : Vicky, 31 October 2010 Complain about this comment
@Vicky

HTML5 on WP7: What do you propose MS do... ship WP7 with a beta version of IE9 ?

Silverlight on WP7: Go and read.

www.silverlight.net/getstarted/devices/windows-phone/

posted by : Fred, 30 October 2010 Complain about this comment
Step to Light & Then HURRr....

IE9 can take to Ent 7, if loaded just after chipset & updates, without Languages. Languages Are Kiler, if more than 5 standard, ie Not Genuine mafia, Korean mafia Evalaution Build.

Get Your Dip, Step to Right, Then Make Your Light & Hurrrr. YouTuble Chief of YouTubing Is Gone Yesterday. Google Just Don't appreciate Old Founders Day.

Tomas' Does It.

Tomas will likely become a hurricane later today as it traverses the warm waters of the western Atlantic and southeastern Caribbean. It could become a major hurricane by mid-week as it moves near Jamaica. The exact forecast for the second half of next week and the weekend is uncertain, but Tomas could be a major threat to anywhere in the Greater Antilles, Central America and even Florida and the Gulf of Mexico.

Seldomyear Tomas' Gets Kick In, Yet Old Doubter Did It 2010. CAT2 Straight thru Carrribean. TomBee, Tomas'.

Hyper Text Markup Language is Fundumental Language of Internet & Html just grow better with Time. & You, & You, & You, Uncles, Where ALL There, With Wizzard In Castle. Dorothy 1927 Ps There wer't cell phones, as need cell phone antenea array to transmit bugger.

Now Give Me Second & ill Give U World.

vondrashek Html jigalo.

posted by : HurlyBurly People...., 30 October 2010 Complain about this comment
I love Microsoft one-upmanship

Especially in standards! Now if only they had the extensions of Firefox, and I could make the jump from this sinking Mozilla monstrosity.

posted by : BB, 30 October 2010 Complain about this comment
Questions abound

I wonder what's so bad about HTML5 that they are all promoting it, it must have something nasty about it most people aren't aware of.

And another q.: why aren't all browsers 100% compatible with the current CSS version? How is it possible with so many people on the internet and so many people working on these things that they can't manage? I mean I could understand if browsers were slow when using some elements, but browsers not 100% supporting CSS's makes no sense to me really, and why are they working on silly GUI things before they have the basic functionality down?

posted by : W.-, 30 October 2010 Complain about this comment
Microsoft's mobile phones have failed

HTML5 is important. It's the future of the web.

However, anyone who buys a Windows Phone 7 phone will find that its only web browser (IE7 Mobile) does not support HTML5 at all. Not only that, but it doesn't support Flash or even Silverlight (Microsoft's own discarded format).

The future of the web is mobile, it's HTML5, yet Microsoft's phones are the only devices on the market that do not support it.

posted by : Vicky, 30 October 2010 Complain about this comment
It might.. but it won't..

"It might mean that developers don't have to spend hours checking whether Microsoft's browsers render their code correctly."

How will Microsoft magically force the ~50% marketshare IE users to upgrade.. give Windows 7 away?

posted by : Dennis, 29 October 2010 Complain about this comment
Almost...

"It might mean that developers don't have to spend hours checking whether Microsoft's browsers render their code correctly."

Apart from the countless thousands still running IE6 because their work says they have to :(

posted by : irishpaul, 29 October 2010 Complain about this comment
aboutus
Advertisement
Subscribe to INQ newsletters
Advertisement
INQ Poll

Mobile World Congress will start on 27 February

What are you most excited about seeing out of MWC?