<P> The Web Hypertext Application Technology Working Group (WHATWG) began work on the new standard in 2004 . At that time, HTML 4.01 had not been updated since 2000, and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was focusing future developments on XHTML 2.0 . In 2009, the W3C allowed the XHTML 2.0 Working Group's charter to expire and decided not to renew it . </P> <P> The Mozilla Foundation and Opera Software presented a position paper at a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) workshop in June 2004, focusing on developing technologies that are backward - compatible with existing browsers, including an initial draft specification of Web Forms 2.0 . The workshop concluded with a vote--8 for, 14 against--for continuing work on HTML . Immediately after the workshop, WHATWG was formed to start work based upon that position paper, and a second draft, Web Applications 1.0, was also announced . The two specifications were later merged to form HTML 5 . The HTML 5 specification was adopted as the starting point of the work of the new HTML working group of the W3C in 2007 . </P> <P> WHATWG's Ian Hickson (Google) and David Hyatt (Apple) produced W3C's first public working draft of the specification on 22 January 2008 . </P> <P> While some features of HTML 5 are often compared to Adobe Flash, the two technologies are very different . Both include features for playing audio and video within web pages, and for using Scalable Vector Graphics . However, HTML 5 on its own cannot be used for animation or interactivity--it must be supplemented with CSS3 or JavaScript . There are many Flash capabilities that have no direct counterpart in HTML 5 (see Comparison of HTML5 and Flash). HTML 5's interactive capabilities became a topic of mainstream media attention around April 2010 after Apple Inc.'s then - CEO Steve Jobs issued a public letter titled "Thoughts on Flash" in which he concluded that "Flash is no longer necessary to watch video or consume any kind of web content" and that "new open standards created in the mobile era, such as HTML5, will win". This sparked a debate in web development circles suggesting that, while HTML 5 provides enhanced functionality, developers must consider the varying browser support of the different parts of the standard as well as other functionality differences between HTML 5 and Flash . In early November 2011, Adobe announced that it would discontinue development of Flash for mobile devices and reorient its efforts in developing tools using HTML 5 . On July 25, 2017, Adobe announced that both the distribution and support of Flash will cease by the end of 2020 . </P>

Html5 produces pages that look the same across all browsers