HTML 5

The recent buzz over HTML 5 this week at Google I/O could not have come at a better time.

It reminds me of another time, back in 2005, when the economy was just starting to recover from the dotcom bust. Ajax made the scene (heavily backed by Google in the form of Suggest and Maps) and got people excited about doing cool things on the web again.

Now the economy is in the crapper again, and here comes HTML 5 (again backed by Google in the form of Chrome and Wave). Looking at some of the demos, I feel the same exhilaration I once felt when I first recognized the potential of DHTML. In many ways, HTML 5 picks up where DHTML -- or DOM scripting of whatever -- left off long ago.

I offer no analysis. It's the most excited I've been about web development in years.