Looking Back: Why was HTML5 a Game Changer for the Online Entertainment Industry?
The first version of the Hyper Text Markup Language standard, often referred to by the acronym HTML, was a gamechanger for the contemporary internet. Prior to the development of HTML, the internet was only accessible to the most dedicated, highly skilled computer scientists and engineers.
Tim Berners-Lee is a British computer scientist who had previously developed expert systems to aid in locating, using, and sharing digital files. He was using the internet as part of his daily job at CERN and recognized its potential as a worldwide communications medium. The world wide web was developed to aid in that goal, and HTML was created as the system’s primary presentation layer. Tim’s work was enough to get things started, and HTML was considered largely mature by the time the fourth major version was released in 1997.
Fast forward another ten years, however, and the unprecedented growth of the internet had far outpaced anything the 1990s engineers could have imagined. A multitude of browser plugins and extensions were now required to enable and secure services such as interacting with your bank, purchasing pizza, playing at a casino such as Unibet Canada Online Casino, or live streaming video. If trust and stability were to be maintained, HTML was going to need a rethink.
The Beginnings of HTML
The first versions of the HTML language were created to aid in the sharing and location of information, but Tim’s own experience as a computer scientist led him to miss a few critical shortcomings in its development. For example, there was no provision for the separation of formatting and content – a huge problem for machine-reading and the visually impaired.
An even bigger problem was the one-way nature of the world wide web as a system; users would request the information they wanted by typing a URL or clicking on a hyperlink, and the server would send it to them. Basic two-way communication was added using forms in the next version, but this was only a small improvement as any information returned via a form could only be used once when the form was submitted.
Despite its flaws, HTML and the web were good enough to inspire people regarding what this system COULD be used for in the future. People dreamed of order takeaway from their computer, making sports bets, and making banking transactions without having to leave their homes. If any of these things were going to become a reality, HTML would need to be expanded much further than its current form.
Several companies had their own ideas about the best way to approach this issue. First out of the blocks was Netscape, the creator of the most popular browser software of the day. Netscape made many useful changes to the HTML specification to allow advanced functionality, many of which are still featured in the language today.
HTML Hits a Snag
By the early 2000s, browser software was starting to become bogged down with the endless plugins and extensions that were required to enable advanced website functionality. One of the most popular extensions of the day was Adobe’s Flash and advanced presentation system that allowed for smooth animation and streaming video content. Flash opened the door for many exciting applications including games and video sharing, but Adobe struggled to secure the software – every time one bug was ironed out, three more would surface in their place.
Eventually, software developers had enough; they looked to the W3C consortium; a nonprofit organization set up to ensure a standards-based web, and began to design a very different version of HTML. HTML5, as it was known, would be able to do everything that Flash could do – and a lot more besides. It was going to be a lot of work, but if done correctly, HTML5 presented an opportunity to return the web to the open platform it was designed to be.
Six Years in Development
The final specifications for HTML5 were only finalized in 2014, more than six years after the initial brief was proposed. It was an extremely ambitious specification that was designed to do far more than any version of HTML that came before it, but everyone agreed that it would be a gamechanger for everyone that used the internet.
The entertainment industry potentially stood to gain the most from the transition to HTML5. Content could now be created on one system before being published on the web for consumption on any device without the need for additional software or plugins. Games studios would be able to publish their game once and then release it onto every type of device in one go, and there would be no need for the user to even download the software due to the web-based nature of the platform.
Soon after the release of HTML5, people began to express doubts about the system. Not every device could be upgraded to support the new software, and owners of such devices were justifiably upset about the looming obsolescence of their devices. Fast forward a few years, however, and the landscape has once again changed beyond all recognition.
Today, HTML5 powers the majority of mobile apps on both Apple & Android platforms; it is the language of choice for user interface design on everything from TV’s and games consoles to tablets and smartphones.
To sum up, why HTML5 was such a gamechanger for the entertainment industry, its simple – creative talent shouldn’t be wasted on producing multiple versions of the same thing to satisfy a fragmented technology landscape. HTML5 has simplified the industry and allowed content creators to focus on what they love – coming up with new ideas. Who could argue that’s not a great thing?