Question

I am currently in the process of developing a website as a personal project. Normally I am quick to adopt new technologies, even though IE makes it a pain sometimes. However, this one makes me worried because the adoption rate for current browsers is spotty even in cutting edge ones like Firefox, Opera, and Safari.

Would you consider adopting HTML 5 / CSS 3 for your website, and why?
Can you list any non-obvious drawbacks to adopting these new technologies?

Answer 1

I will consider using HTML5 / CSS3 when the time is right. It is not yet.

The answer to why consists of two parts:

1. Technically, the browsers are still playing catch up. The support is not yet mainstream across all major browsers.

2. Humanly, the adoption of a new browser wave takes millennia. Even today many people are reporting from their site statistics that a bigger portion of users coming with IE6 and IE5 oboard. Even IE7 has not been widely adopted yet. And we already need IE8. And you’re talking about some IEn whenever this will happen.

As a sort of a vicious circle, since there is no widespread support for HTML5 / CSS3 yet, developers are not targeting these standards, consequently, the browser makers do not get a stream of feedback they absolutely need to fix bugs and improve support in their products. Understanding this, developers are not fond going with it yet. So both parties are waiting for each other. And the users, oh well, they do not even know what HTML or a browser is (this little blue or orange Internet on my taskbar).