Case study - 3D Globe in HTML5

HTML5 brought some exciting new tools for web developers. To me, the most appealing ones are the canvas tag, and the geolocation API. With canvas, you can create graphics rendered right in the browser, just like with SVG, but in a standard HTML environment.I have played around with this new tag and created a demo to display geographical coordinates on a 3D sphere. Have a look: http://adszhu.googlepages.com/canvasglobe.html

CANVAS - a piece of Apple for your browser

I used to wonder why there is still no support for Adobe Flash on iPhone... However, since OS3 is capable to run HTML5 code, this is not that painful anymore. The new standard of HTML contains, among others, a new tag, namely the "canvas". Using this, you can create incredible graphics, even in 3D. The demo above is just one great example. Just move the mouse over the pics and enjoy the animation! I can't wait to read the introduction of the new release of my favorite web apps utilizing HTML5, eg Picasa, Google Earth, etc. Even Google Maps might get much more efficient, since we don't need to download map tile images anymore - the browser might draw it itself!

HTML5 and the GeoWeb

HTML5 is here, merely supported by all popular browsers, including mobile ones like the Safari on iPhone. This new standard is a huge step toward turning the web into the ultimate platform. Complex applications that needed native code for each operating system can now be replaced with platform-independent web applications. Just think of Google Earth - you can really have it in your browser.

Considering my favorit area of web development, the GeoWeb (meaning social web apps with geospatial contents), what are the benefits of HTML5? Let me mention only two of them

1 - The "canvas" tag lets you manipulate vector images from scripts. Have a look at this example

2 - The geolocation API lets you reach GPS data right from the browser. My favorite web application of this kind is the Latitude from Google. The image in the top left shows a screenshot of Latitude running in the browser of an iPhone

So, now we can create even vector-map applications with GPS support simply in HTML!