In the summer of 2010 is it time to start using HTML5?

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+7 Q:

In the summer of 2010 is it time to start using HTML5?

I created this question as community wiki in the hope that it and its answers will be edited as the situation with HTML5 changes.

Time to use HTML5?

This question gets trotted out about once a year, so I might be beating a dead horse, but is it finally time (in the summer of 2010) to use HTML5 when developing a brand new web site?

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Edit as a follow on

Is it a mixed bag: i.e. use these tags safely but stay away from x, y, z?

Is your site ready to abandon half the internet?

Kirk Woll 2010-08-04 21:40:30

I don't think it's necessary the case.

Daniel Vassallo 2010-08-04 21:41:49

Really? Which version of IE has fun rendering http://www.html5rocks.com/?

Kirk Woll 2010-08-04 23:20:00

Yes, it's time! By two reasons:

It already works
It speeds up development of HTML5 compatibility

Use it with caution though! Using the simplified doctype and the new semantic markup tags will not hurt, but just do good. Using canvas and the media tags with no fallback might be a couple of years too early.

Johan 2010-08-04 21:41:03

+6 A:

We are far far away, see:

When can i use...

But you can dive into it by following:

for the moment :)

Sarfraz 2010-08-04 21:41:26

And this is the final answer for now. Take a look a Google's source code it will probably change few times up to 2022, but it is HTML5 already.

takeshin 2010-08-05 10:22:25

@takeshin are they using HTML5 or just the HTML5 doctype?

ahsteele 2010-08-05 13:29:32

@ahsteele This is what the Sarfaz's post is about. Not all the browsers support all HTML5 tags (we don't even know which tags are/will be in HTML5), but all the browsers already support the doctype.

takeshin 2010-08-05 18:14:45

+1 A:

It depends what you mean by HTML 5. You can use the doctype now, and many of the features are backward-compatible, so you can use them now and they will fallback gracefully. Other tags just won't work, and so you have to be more judicious.

Ned Batchelder 2010-08-04 21:44:45

+2 A:

I think you'd probably get better feedback if you clarified what you mean by 'use html5'. That covers a lot of different funtionality, some of it not even finalized. Are you planning on using it all... or just certain pieces (like the tag?) Whether its a good idea to use it now is going to depend on what pieces of HTML5 you are talking about.

GrandmasterB 2010-08-04 21:45:01

Modified the question to hopefully allow for *un-boxed* answers.

ahsteele 2010-08-04 22:10:54

According to readwriteweb, as of May 2010, 46% of users use browsers with html5 support. So, maybe we are over 50% now. But it really comes down to your audience - if you are targetting the general population, I would say it's a definitely too early. But if you are targetting a more tech-savvy audience, maybe not. Of course, degrade as gracefully as possible.

Link: http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/46_of_internet_users_ready_for_html5.php

EDIT: Yes, the study mentioned in the readwriteweb reference was done by Chitika, and was based on HTML 5 video support. Chrome, Safari 3 and up, and Firefox 3.5 and up were consider "HTML 5".

Ed Schembor 2010-08-04 21:50:53

"To determine a browser's HTML5 readiness, Chitika looked at the browser's ability to render HTML5 video." - That's just one feature of many in HTML5. If that's the feature you want, great. Otherwise, the measure is completely pointless.

Alohci 2010-08-04 23:51:53

Fair enough - updated my response with more specific.

Ed Schembor 2010-08-05 13:55:00

+2 A:

Not until 2022 (if they stay on schedule).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTML5#cite_note-techrepublicref-8

Regarding the "When can I use" link posted by Sarfraz - wow, that's an awful lot of extra work, waste of time, and consideration that could all be avoided if you just drop HTML5 and use Silverlight, Flex, or JavaFX. Any virtual machine based solution is going to beat fighting an endless battle with browser wars.

Crusader 2010-08-04 21:52:31

Who’s “they”? Because as the Wikipedia article notes, the mention of 2022 in that TechRepublic interview was an estimate of when there would be two complete and interoperable implementations of HTML5, i.e. two browsers support all of HTML5 (which we don’t have for HTML 4 yet). I don’t think any browser makers have a schedule for when that’ll happen. But of course, if you’d cited the quote accurately you wouldn’t have got all that quality *snark* in there.

Paul D. Waite 2010-08-04 22:15:27

"They" are part of the problem huh? :) Think about it a bit more.

Crusader 2010-08-04 22:25:57

Is it just me or has HTML5 taken on a religious cult like status.

Allan 2010-08-05 03:50:07

It's not just you. Then again, Google/Apple, two of the big drivers behind it, **do** have a cult following of their own who seem to think these companies can do no wrong, so perhaps that has something to do with it.@Paul: W3C and anyone implementing HTML5 = they; and honestly I don't see how anything was misquoted. The overall point is, at the pace HTML5 and all non-'virtual' environments are moving, it seems like we'll all be retired by the time it catches up to Flash/Flex or Silverlight. And even then, who knows how well (and consistently) the implementation will go. Ouch!

Crusader 2010-08-09 04:28:33

Actually Allen, I think it's clear at this point that HTML5 is taking over king-of-all-buzzwords status from "AJAX".

Crusader 2010-08-09 04:32:01

@Crusader: “honestly I don't see how anything was misquoted” — 2022 was an offhand guess, not a schedule, so unless we’re using different versions of English, that‘s a misquote. Staying on definitions, the meaning of “catches up” depends on what features you think are important.

Paul D. Waite 2010-08-09 22:09:34

I wish! Wouldn't that be great! I guess if you have a site that has a high enough demand that people will upgrade their browsers then go for it. It seems like people are more attached to their old browsers than super glue is to fingers.

Barlow Tucker 2010-08-04 21:56:49

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In the summer of 2010 is it time to start using HTML5?

Time to use HTML5?

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