HTML5’s Rise Marked with Confidence and Some Security Concerns

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HTML5, the emerging browser markup language that experts say represents a fundamental break with the past, is gaining ground rapidly, but not without some questions.

Cross-platform Web app development firm Sencha, which participated in Strategy Analytics’ sixth annual developers’ survey, said that HTML5 enjoys a 20 percent growth rate, according to the story on the study at eWeek. It has the highest growth among app development platforms.

The ascendance of HTML5 also is illustrated by a move this month by Mozilla. The company reacted to the news from Adobe of the existence of a pair of critical vulnerabilities that could turn over control of Flash by pointing users to HTML5 and JavaScript instead. Initially, the Flash Player was blocked, but once fixes were made available by Adobe, Mozilla changed Flash’s status to an opt-in plugin. What’s interesting here is that Mozilla is aggressively pushing HTML5.

But all the recent news wasn’t good for HTML5. Ironically, research in Italy offers precisely the opposite takeaway as Mozilla: It suggests that HTML5 can be a hideout for mischievous exploits.  Fudzilla’s Nick Farrell reports that researchers at the University of Salerno and Sapienza University of Rome used three different approaches to hide exploits in HTML5. The danger concerns the scripting of application programming interfaces (APIs) by which JavaScript connects with HTML5. It’s likely that the issues will be ironed out, but the research paper offers approaches to countering the three issues.

At InformationWeek, Curtis Franklin offers a series of observations about life for developers and others in an HTML5 world. Apparently, it is difficult but not impossible to insert HTML5 elements into an HTML4 browser, though a new browser really is the way to go. And video will be easier to handle in the new world.

Franklin says that users of HTML5 browsers will enjoy added security; however, he doesn’t address the issues raised by Fudzilla. He also says we’ll benefit from a smoother experience. Developers have also had things a bit easier, since more elements in HTML5 are included in the core product that, in the past, had to be added through plug-ins and other add-ons.

Indeed, HTML5 is clearly attractive to developers, and at Bdaily, Michael Waugh outlined the highlights. They include cross-platform compatibility (the ability to write once for a number of operating systems), automated updates and constantly evolving functionality. HTML5 also facilitates hybrid apps that are part native (written for the device’s operating system) and part Web-based.

Carl Weinschenk covers telecom for IT Business Edge. He writes about wireless technology, disaster recovery/business continuity, cellular services, the Internet of Things, machine-to-machine communications and other emerging technologies and platforms. He also covers net neutrality and related regulatory issues. Weinschenk has written about the phone companies, cable operators and related companies for decades and is senior editor of Broadband Technology Report. He can be reached at cweinsch@optonline.net and via twitter at @DailyMusicBrk.