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Ever since last April, when Steve Jobs of Apple announced that the iPod 4 would only run HTML5 and wouldn’t support Flash, there has been a lot of buzz around HTML5. But there are a few questions that continue to crop up all over the online community like: why HTML5, what’s different about it, and how will it change the way we all interact online?

A simple way to explain HTML5 is to say that the entire web browser operates in a similar way as an application. Current HTML format only allows pictures and text to be viewed on the web page and other programs such as Adobe’s Flash, Shockwave, Microsoft’s Silverlight and Javascript function “on top” of the browser and separate from the HTML code. HTML5 rids the web browser of any extraneous or separate programs, allowing all of the animation, video and effects to be done within the coding itself. Here is a great diagram I found that gives a more in depth explanation of HTML5, and here is an example of how Scribd converts digital text and graphics into HTML5.

Apple isn’t the only major company that has shifted their focus to HTML5, as Youtube, Facebook and Google all have made strides in making their sites HTML5 compatible, and the main reason for the change has to do with performance. A website that uses HTML5 as opposed to regular HTML can access any multimedia and interactive online content without pre-existing Flash, Shockwave, Silverlight or Javascript software needing to be installed. This makes the web much more accessible and navigation within the browser becomes way more efficient. On top of this, HTML5 is considered to be doing great things for both online social media and video.

In a Flowtown blog titled The Rise of HTML5, they state: “…HTML5 is also on pace to revolutionize online video. By doing away with the need for third-party plug-in software, video can be embedded into a website with the speed and universal compatibility that images are now. Video elements will come with standard controls as well, including play, stop, rewind, and volume manipulation.” So, in a nutshell, video in HTML5 will function in the same way that images in regular HTML do, they are right there in the HTML code and no third-party player is required for playback; this online video optimization was the major factor in both Youtube and Facebook’s decision to switch to HTML5. Additionally, the article claims that HTML5 is pertinent to social media enthusiasts because: “HTML5 has already been used to create application caches which allow you to store web apps (such as Facebook) locally. This allows users to access pages without connecting to the Internet, a useful feature when your signal dies out. Google Gears is an example of this technology in use, ” meaning that HTML5 could allow people to update their profiles, sites and applications even if they don’t have an internet connection, and all their online information will instantly update the next time the computer gets online. This will definitely be appealing to avid social media users.

Flowtown isn’t the only site that sees promise in HTML5′s boost to online social media and video. Codingthis.com says that video is the number one perk to HTML5, stating that: “You can embed a video on a page with the same amount of ease as you could embed an image with the help of HTML5 codes. And what makes it better is that you can manipulate videos and built-in video controls and of course you don’t need to rely on third-party codes to embed a video.” The video-centric social network Vimeo has caught on to this and released an HTML5 version of its video player last August stating the reason for their decision was because of the great demand for an embeddable player in HTML5 for devices like the iPad and the iPhone. Which makes a lot of sense, especially when considering the VAR Guy’s recent blog about how iPad’s are faring very well in their competition with notebooks.

With innovative technologies like HTML5 comes the opportunity for talented people to come up with original and creative ideas. Check out this experimental film called The Wilderness Downtown by Chris Milk, which is a music video for the song by Arcade Fire called “We Used to Wait”.  The film incorporates multiple windows opening and closing, Google Maps, and even allows the user to interact with the film, which makes for an awesome HTML5 video experience. There has been an explosion of games in HTML5, one of my favorite games is Entanglement and here are the top 5 best HTML5 games to play in the office, brought to you by inslices.com. I also found this stunning display of 8-bit graphics using HTML5 as well as a full 3-D engine done in HTML5.

So, is HTML5 the way of the future? With all the talk surrounding it and with major companies like Apple, Youtube, Facebook and Goggle all making great strides to be HTML5 compatible, I don’t see how it couldn’t be, which is great news for anyone involved in the internet video industry.