For those unfamiliar with HTML5, it is going to be the next big update for the HTML coding standard. Some of the new elements in HTML5 include:

• Canvas Element: allows rendering of graphics (including those used in games) on the fly. What is nice about Canvas is this is done without the need for troublesome plugins such as Flash. On a side note about Flash, Apple CEO Steve Jobs hates Flash and loves HTML5
• Video Element: allows embedding of video without the need for clunky plugins such as the open source Adobe Flash and Apple’s QuickTime. HTML5 is going to be taking advantage of the H.264 and VP8 codecs.
• Geolocaton: A more reliable way of pin-pointing a web users location. Instead of relying on the user’s IP address Geolocation in HTML5 will be able to pin-point a user’s location based on hits from Wi-Fi Towers (similar to way GPS in your smart phone works).
• Offline Web Applications: allowing users to still interact with web applications even when they are connect to a network.

The below chart was designed to explain HTML5 and it is differences from Adobe Flash. However it also shows how ‘HTML5 Ready’ current and versions of IE, Firefox, Chrome, Opera and Safari are.

A couple things I found really interesting looking at the above chart is IE8 and even the future IE9 do not support many of the HTML5 features. I am very surprised to see Chrome currently is the most HTML5 ready browser. I suppose part of this has to do with Google having a vested interest in HTML by recently making the VP8 video codec open-source. On the flip side, when(ever) Firefox 4 is released (may be end of this year, may be early next year) it will be the most HTML5 ready browser.Source: The Microsoft Blog