The Rise Of The Web App: YouTube Embraces HTML5

There’s no doubt that web applications on the traditional web applications (using a conventional browser on your computer) have taken a huge leap forward in the last 5 years. ‘a0Web apps such as Gmail, Zoho and a few others are bending how we think of web apps as just a marriage of dynamic web content and databases.

Now, we are finally seeing some really sexy and functional mobile web apps coming on board. ‘a0Google is leading the charge by embracing the mobile web instead of putting out proprietary native apps on Android. ‘a0By utilizing and pushing the new features of HTML5, Google and other application developers are pushing mobile web apps into new directions.

This is very apparent in the release of the new YouTube player that smartly utilizes the video tag available as a part of HTML5. ‘a0In the revamped YouTube site, you can go beyond merely watching videos and: leave comments, “like” and “dislike” videos, rotate the videos horizontally, subsrcibe to channels, and watch videos in high quality mode. ‘a0All this functionality is available on a website!

The new app is available for HTML5-compliant mobile browsers, namely the iPhone and Android, at this point. ‘a0The new m.YouTube.com leapfrogs the iPhone native YouTube’a0application’a0in many respects. ‘a0As readers may know, the native app on iPhone/iPod Touch only allows you to view videos and at low quality.

The fact is: HTML5 unlocks handset capabilities that have never been’a0accessible’a0to mobile web’a0developers’a0before including: geolocation, access to the’a0accelerometer, and of course video.

These features were a hot topic of conversation at the ReadWriteWeb Mobile Summit back in May and I’m happy to see developers exploiting the new features. ‘a0Also, kudos to Google to taking a leadership roll in showing the world what mobile web apps are capable of!

Will you use the new mobile YouTube site over the native app on your Apple mobile device?

Say something

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked with a grey bar.

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>