[James Mitchell]

Is anyone using HTML5 actively on client projects?

If so,

• How much degradation for older browsers do you use?
  
• Have you noticed any SEO benefits yet?

[marcamos]

I'm only using the HTML5 DOCTYPE and few of the new form input type attributes; anything beyond that just feels 'too soon' for me.

[James Mitchell]

marcamos, on 21 September 2010 - 08:32 AM, said:

I'm only using the HTML5 DOCTYPE and few of the new form input type attributes; anything beyond that just feels 'too soon' for me.

How are the older browsers responding to the lack of declaration?

[marcamos]

Well, the doctype is still declared, it's just not specifying which version. As far as how old browsers react, I only check back to IE7 and it doesn't seem affected by it.

[che09]

Well,I am not using. But does using HTML5 has more benefits? If so,What are those?

[Rob Kaper]

Some HTML5 benefits:

- many more elements with structural meaning as opposed of abusing style classes on divs which is just not just esthetically nicer but also makes DOM selectors more efficient
- more input types (degrading to text) for common data types allowing user agents to optimise input methods (e.g. the special keyboard layout for phone numbers on a touchscreen device)

Degrading nicely is very simple:

- set "display: block" on article, section, nav and all other new elements
- for IE and older versions of other browsers, look for html5shiv.js and include it (hosted on Google CDN or downloadable)

With those two steps, there really isn't any reason not to use HTML5.

I don't know about SEO benefits because so far I'm only using my new HTML5 framework in new sites with no historical data, but despite their small size (developing the framework is a priority) I'm definitely not disappointed with early indications of keyword ranking.

[che09]

Rob Kaper, on 25 November 2010 - 03:32 PM, said:

Some HTML5 benefits:

- many more elements with structural meaning as opposed of abusing style classes on divs which is just not just esthetically nicer but also makes DOM selectors more efficient
- more input types (degrading to text) for common data types allowing user agents to optimise input methods (e.g. the special keyboard layout for phone numbers on a touchscreen device)

Degrading nicely is very simple:

- set "display: block" on article, section, nav and all other new elements
- for IE and older versions of other browsers, look for html5shiv.js and include it (hosted on Google CDN or downloadable)

With those two steps, there really isn't any reason not to use HTML5.

I don't know about SEO benefits because so far I'm only using my new HTML5 framework in new sites with no historical data, but despite their small size (developing the framework is a priority) I'm definitely not disappointed with early indications of keyword ranking.

Thanks Rob! I really appreciated your thoughts!! I've noted those down by way!

[JakeMcGreg]

Rob Kaper, on 25 November 2010 - 03:32 PM, said:

Some HTML5 benefits:

- many more elements with structural meaning as opposed of abusing style classes on divs which is just not just esthetically nicer but also makes DOM selectors more efficient
- more input types (degrading to text) for common data types allowing user agents to optimise input methods (e.g. the special keyboard layout for phone numbers on a touchscreen device)

Degrading nicely is very simple:

- set "display: block" on article, section, nav and all other new elements
- for IE and older versions of other browsers, look for html5shiv.js and include it (hosted on Google CDN or downloadable)

With those two steps, there really isn't any reason not to use HTML5.

I don't know about SEO benefits because so far I'm only using my new HTML5 framework in new sites with no historical data, but despite their small size (developing the framework is a priority) I'm definitely not disappointed with early indications of keyword ranking.

Glad you posted the benefits here. I'd like to start from scratch this HTML5. I'm just worried about the SEO results though.