Vendors, such as Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Adobe (NASDAQ: ADBE), have been showing off demonstrations of HTML5 implementations even though the fifth version of the specification has a ways to go before becoming an actual standard.

Google is working on using HTML5 in many of its future Gmail features, reports Joab Jackson of IDG News Service. The eventual standard can make loading messages in the email system much faster, possibly taking less than a second. The company is also working on a way to use HTML5 to enable users to drag files into the browser from the desktop, which will make web applications function more like desktop applications, Jackson reports.

Google has also created a website called HTML5Rocks, which, as MG Siegler at TechCrunch points out, follows on the heels of Apple's new website highlighting HTML5 demonstrations. Both companies, however, offer mobile platforms with native applications that were not developed using HTML5, Siegler notes. While Apple's demos seem to work only on its Safari browser, Google's work in Chrome as well as Safari, he writes.

Peter Wayner, in a post at InfoWorld, looks at why it's important to keep an eye on the development of HTML5, which is slated to give websites greater capabilities, including more interactive graphics, location tracking, cloud storage and possibly improved security. Wayner offers a collection of insights from programmers and developers on the ways that the eventual standard will change the web.

For more:
- see Joab Jackson's article from IDG New Service
- see MG Siegler's post at TechCrunch
- see Peter Wayner's post at InfoWorld

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