Celebrating the W3C & HTML5 With a New Logo Program

W3C is the home of web standards

The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) has been the home of web standards since 1994 and is a unique place where every major browser vendor (Apple, Firefox, Google, Microsoft, Opera) participate as one of the 322 W3C members.

Logo now available

Today, the W3C is introducing a new logo program for HTML5. A logo with a consistent visual design is an important indication of the growing maturity of many components of HTML5. As developer and site owners see this logo across the web, we hope it will signal that while there is still a lot of work to do until all the HTML5 technologies are ready, real sites are starting to take advantage of them today.

The logo links back to W3C, the place for authoritative information on HTML5, including specs and test cases. It’s time to tell the world that HTML5 is ready to be adopted. You can find some examples of how real sites are using HTML5 today here.

Microsoft and the W3C

Microsoft, as part of its ongoing focus on interoperability, is committed to the W3C and we currently have had some 66 participants in 38 technical groups. We work closely with other members on a range of matters, from drafting early specifications to developing test suites to improve interoperability.

Parts of HTML5 are ready to be used today

HTML5 offers tremendous improvements in interactivity, graphics, typography and more. One question we often hear is “When should my site start embracing HTML5?” Our answer is simple. Today. But it’s important to recognize that HTML5 is not just one technology, but rather that it encompasses a broad set of technologies. So, while there are some parts that are very stable and are ready to be used in real sites today, there are also some parts that are still changing rapidly.

With IE9 and HTML5 Labs - which gives developers a stable foundation to build their experiences on IE9 knowing that their sites will continue to work with build updates - we are making this line clearer to encourage adoption rather than waiting. In IE9, we have put the site-ready parts of HTML5 that can be used today without worrying about the site breaking as the specification changes.

In the HTML5 Labs environment, we are building prototypes for unstable specifications where we can iterate quickly and freely as we make it clear to developers not to include these in sites as yet. Microsoft’s Interoperability Bridges & Labs Center has started publishing prototype implementations of unstable specifications where significant change is expected.

Congratulations to the W3C on the new HTML5 logo program!

Jean Paoli

GM: Interoperability Strategy