HTML5 is the next version of the Hypertext Markup Language standard for creating Web pages. The standard has lain fallow for a decade, but passionate, persistent developers resuscitated it with new features ranging from built-in video to 2D graphics.

But there's a reason a minority of the population knows how to program: it's complicated. So it's no surprise that when it comes time to pitch a product, the marketing folks step in with the tasteful packaging to make it all comprehensible.

Apple blocked other browsers from its HTML5 demo site.

(Credit: Screenshot by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

In Apple's case, it was an HTML5 demo page. There have been plenty of such pages before, and there will be plenty more to come, but few in the tech world are up to the caliber of Apple's marketing staff. Apple's HTML5 demos offer swirling iPods, tasteful typographic technology, elaborately transforming photos, and other eye candy.

Hackles raised
Apple lending its marketing might sounds like a dream come true for developers who'd spent years struggling to make the case for HTML5, right? Umm, not so much.

Apple's programmers with the WebKit browser engine project that underlies Safari have been among the HTML5 allies, but Apple's marketing staff evidently are less collegial. Apple's site blocked other browsers, with the following message:

You'll need to download Safari to view this demo.

This demo was designed with the latest Web standards supported by Safari. If you'd like to experience this demo, simply download Safari. It's free for Mac and PC, and it only takes a few minutes.

It doesn't quite say that other browsers don't support HTML5, but it most definitely is a marketing pitch for Safari.

It should come as no surprise to see Apple touting its products, but the way it did so raised hackles.

"Apple's messaging is clearly meant to say, "Hey, we love the Web," but the actual demos they have and the fact that [they] actively block other browsers from those demos don't match their messaging. It's not intellectually honest at all," complained Mozilla evangelist Christopher Blizzard in a blog post. "It's unfortunate, and I guess inevitable, that browsers would compete on how much HTML5 they are bathed in."

Bruce Lawson, who has long touted HTML5 at Opera, was better-humored if not any happier, calling Apple's site "hilariously disingenuous." Adds an Opera colleague Haarvard Moen, "When the page doesn't work in Opera or other browsers it isn't because these browsers don't support HTML5."

Those who agree with the critics might put themselves in Apple's shoes for a moment, though.

Sure, the site is for promoting Safari. But beyond that, it's also meant to show off various browser features, not to check how well one browser or another supports them. It's a demonstration for the mainstream, non-tech-savvy audience Apple aspires to shield from technical complexity. The last thing Apple wants is for the demo to look bad or broken on some noncompliant browser, and blocking others besides Safari accomplishes that. The more of the technology a company controls, the easier it is to keep the bugs at bay, a lesson Apple knows well from Macs and iPhones.