What is HTML?

If you want to make a website, there is no way except HTML. If you use some kind of softwares to develop websites, it also generates HTML tags to build the structure of web page. HTML is basically a markup language used to build the structure of web pages.

What is HTML5?

HTML5 is basically the latest version of HTML and its previous version was HTML 4.01. HTML5 has been designed to deliver almost everything you want to do on your website without requiring aditional scripts like Flash video player (to play video files) etc. HTML5 came with a lot of changes and its still in progress however modern browsers support many of the HTML5 elements and APIs.

Why Did HTML5 started

W3C and WHATWG decided to work and introduce a new version of HTML which should reduce the use of external plugins, scripts and simplify HTML tags and its structure. They established some rules for HTML5

• Should be based on HTML, CSS, DOM, and JavaScript (means it should support tags of HTML4.01 etc)
• HTML5 should be plateform independent
• Reduce the need for external plugins (like Flash)
• The development process should be visible to the public
• More markup to replace scripting
• Better error handling

Whats New in HTML5

HTML5 includes new tags and APIs like

• The Canvas Element for 2D Drawing with the help of javascript
• SVG Element for Drawing
• Video and Audio element for Media Playback
• Better Support for Local Offline Storage
• Content Specific Elements like <article>,<footer>,<header>,<nav> and <section>
• New Form Controls like, calendar, date, time, email, url, search and attributes like required, placeholder, pattern etc

Basic and Minimum HTML5 Document

 Browser Support

As HTML5 work is still in progress so its not yet fully supported by any browser but all modern browsers are adding new features of HTML5 to their latest versions.

Latest versions of Safari, Firefox, Google Chrome, Opera, Internet Explorer supports some of new features of HTML5.