HTML

Simon (from Dejal Systems) is a reasonably priced, feature-rich site-monitoring tool, especially useful to administrators who need to keep track of multiple sites, servers, and applications. The app's primary interface is a straightforward Monitor window, which displays everything that you're tracking with stats on uptime, time until the next check, and time since the last change and failure--along with graphs, lists, and more details when you drill down. You can drag and drop URLs onto the Monitor window, or import from bookmarks, and Simon's services let you define what you want to test, from SMART status to … Read more

There's a major movement afoot to rebuild the Web as a foundation for interactive applications. But Adobe Systems, whose Flash technology already plays that role as a nearly ubiquitous browser plug-in, believes its technology will stay a step ahead of the game.

The Web application folks are focused on HTML5, the next version of the Hypertext Markup Language standard used to create Web pages, along with associated standards such as JavaScript for programming. On this agenda is work to let Web applications work while offline, display video without any plug-ins, show accelerated 3D graphics, and churn away at background … Read more

Some seeds for overhauling Web browser graphics were planted more than a decade ago, and Google believes now is the time for them to bear fruit.

The company is hosting the SVG Open 2009 conference that begins Friday to dig into a standard called Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) that can bring the technology to the Web. With growing support from browser makers, an appetite for vector graphics among Web programmers, and new work under way to make SVG a routine part of the Web, the technology has its best chance in years at becoming mainstream.

New Web programming standards are … Read more

Google released an Internet Explorer plug-in Tuesday designed to let Microsoft's browser use the features and performance of Google's own Chrome browser.

The software, called Google Chrome Frame, lets IE 6, 7, or 8 use Chrome to render Web pages and execute their JavaScript programs, Google said. To use it, people must install the open-source plug-in, currently in the developer preview stage, and Web developers must insert a line of code onto their Web sites that engages Chrome Frame when a person visits the site.

"For users, installing Google Chrome Frame will allow them to seamlessly enjoy … Read more

In a rare display of public goodwill between Google and Microsoft, the companies are bonding over Microsoft's decision to actively participate in the HTML 5 standards process.

In a post to the The WHATWG Blog spotted by Ars Technica, Google's Mark Pilgrim, the company's leading HTML 5 evangelist, thanked Microsoft's Adrian Bateman for joining the conversation over HTML 5 development several weeks ago. "On August 7, 2009, Adrian Bateman did what no man or woman had ever done before: he gave substantive feedback on the current editor's draft of HTML5 on behalf of Microsoft. … Read more

Google announced Tuesday that the third stable release of Chrome is ready for the world, a little over a year after its debut.

Chrome releases evolve from developer previews to beta releases to stable ones, and the third version of Google's Web browser has now earned that coveted status. It's about 25 percent faster than the Chrome 2.0 stable version, and the new version (click here for download) also comes with a few tweaks.

Google redesigned the New Tab page with a click-and-drag mentality, added icons to the Omnibox to distinguish between searches, sites, and bookmarks when … Read more

Today's Web programmers face a big choice when it comes to fancier aspects of their sites: HTML or Flash? One start-up hopes it can bridge the gap with a technology called FluidHTML.

The start-up, FHTML, announced software Monday at the TechCrunch50 conference that's intended to give HTML-style programmers the ability to use Flash features.

FluidHTML's language is an extension of HTML, the company said. "We borrow a lot of the really good ideas from HTML, because why wouldn't we?" said Chief Executive Michael Collette at the conference.

The approach holds some promise--but it also … Read more

ASCII Art Marker lets users convert existing images into ASCII and create freehand ASCII images. We wish we could tell you more about it, but the sparse interface makes it hard to get a handle on exactly what else the program does.

The program's interface is basic--too basic. Our first instinct was to open the Help file, because we weren't sure how the program worked. Unfortunately, although there is a Help menu, when we tried to open it nothing happened. So we had to try to figure things out on our own. We started with the ASCII Editor, … Read more

An Apple manager has become a co-chairman of the group standardizing HTML, giving the company a higher-profile role in a crucial time for development of the language used to build Web pages.

The World Wide Web Consortium's HTML Working Group had been led by IBM's Sam Ruby and Microsoft's Chris Wilson. Wilson has stepped down and is being replaced by two others, Paul Cotton, who manages Microsoft's Web services standards team, and Maciej Stachowiak, who manages Apple's WebKit WebApps team, according to an e-mail announcement by W3C Director Tim Berners-Lee.

"Why three co-Chairs?" … Read more