HTML5 's political struggle: Game rules scramble app for real enemies

In 2007, Jobs asserted that he refused flash and predicted the advent of the HTML5 era, and the IT industry had a religious zest for HTML5. HTML5 has many outstanding features, can be directly on the Web page drawing, embedding audio and video, to achieve information interaction, can be across iOS, Android and other platforms, easy to convert Web applications to desktop applications ... It has become a byword for app Terminators and next-generation mobile technology.

Today, no one will despise the changes brought about by HTML5. The recently-born Firefox operating system (Fireox OS) is trying to get the HTML5 apps to be built directly into the phone's underlying architecture to run more smoothly.

Giants in different fields are moving, Disney has bought a HTML5 game development company, Amazon Kindle uses HTML5 technology to build bookstores, Twitter uses HTML5 to develop ipad apps, and even Adobe has renounced Flash's support on mobile terminals, Fully withdraw from Google Store, turn to html5! Also in China: Tencent, Sohu and many other Internet companies also low-key layout browser platform to HTML5 to achieve all kinds of applications.

However, in everyone to HTML5 high expectations, HTML5 own standard-setting but there has been a serious differentiation. In July, the WHATWG and the HTML5, who were the makers of the same, said they could not continue to cooperate, hoping to set a standard that would follow market or technological developments, while the latter would have to establish a "dead" standard that could never be amended once it was formally promulgated.

Once the standard is divided, developers will face the chaos of the web again, and the HTML5 epoch-making meaning that has existed with Cross-platform Advantage has ceased to exist. Worse, this is not just a dispute between WHATWG and the consortium, which is a huge market value that is a temptation for every participant to wade in. have been hiding behind the Microsoft, Apple, Google and other major IT giants are the standard of the open, or digging the grave? Who is the real master of HTML5? It is a battle of many forces, full of swords and the intensity of a political struggle.

Whose game is it?

According to the promotion plan of the HTML5, the official promulgation of the standard will go up to 2022 years. HTML5 Standard formulation involved in the technology is not complex, no need to invest in any research or development or team, the most critical is whether to draw the operating system and browser manufacturers to join, the consortium also clear this, WHATWG to its emboldened, it is from the Mozilla (Firefox development organization), The support of Apple and opera.

The consortium chose Microsoft. Although the "wolf" approach has been criticized, it turns out that the company is right to choose Microsoft.

Microsoft has long gone its own way, ignoring the web-standard style of the other browser manufacturers Crusade, public opinion also unanimously against Microsoft issued a voice. Under high pressure, Microsoft began to change its attitude. Of course, Microsoft will not join the WHATWG made up of Mozilla and Apple.

At that time, ie market share over 70%,w3c and WHATWG strength contrast suddenly reversed. And soon Microsoft abandoned its own Silverlight technology, completely into the embrace of HTML5. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer even expressed his fondness for HTML5 in public: "HTML5 is a platform binder that promotes independence and innovation between the front and back ends." ”

Although Microsoft was once on the sidelines of the consortium, the scales were quickly pulled back. WHATWG also found a heavyweight weight Google.

Google is ambitious in the HTML5 standard. HTML5 not only allows its applications to better support Gmail and Google +, but the key is that HTML5 can replace Flash, which is not understandable by search engines.

2005, Google recruited Whatwg founder Ian. On the one hand, Google let Ian continue to promote the work of WHATWG, on the other hand, Ian became Google's representative and editor of the Consortium, to exert influence on the business. Later, Chrome (Google browser) market share rapid growth, ie all the way down, Google as a weight is also getting heavier.

However, Google did not allow WHATWG to become more united, in the competition to reflect the advantages, but caused the WHATWG internal division. The reason is simple-a mountain is not two tigers.

At present, HTML5 more than 90% of the agreement has basically reached a consensus, but the video format-the most critical link between Google and Apple, there is a fierce contradiction between the HTML5 standard-setting process has stalled here.

But uniform video format standards are not easy. Google accuses Apple of choosing the MPEG Video protocol, the core technology of which is held by an Apple-led agency, and the issue of commercialization will bring patents that do not conform to the open principles set by HTML5 standards. Google then converted all YouTube videos into its WEBM format, determined to compete with Apple.

The situation is becoming more and more confusing, and the WHATWG of the consortium is not the crux of the problem, now it becomes: Who can mediate the dispute, who is the biggest hero of HTML5 standard. But who will give in to the billions of dollar market? In the technical field, there is not much patience to wait for the problem to be solved, now there is a strange phenomenon: the HTML5 standard is still in the draft, but has been widely used, and the major browsers have declared their support for HTML5 is the best.

The only certainty now is that the rules of the future are not about the WHATWG or the game. Klaus Birkenbihl, a former consultant to the consortium, is worried about the situation, saying that "neither the consortium nor the WHATWG can afford to fail because it hurts the web." "The implication is that if neither group can control the situation, then the market will get out of hand."

The long Blu-ray and HD-DVD battle over the industry has been a profound lesson because of the standard dispute--although Sony (Blu-Ray) has won the standard, it has missed the perfect time to develop high-capacity DVDs, with the rise of online high-definition video and internet television, DVDs lose their original value. The consortium began to placate developers by announcing a "referral standard" in 2014 and a formal promulgation in 2022.