Happy Birthday Google – but it’s not HTML5

« Back 7 September 2010

So it’s Google’s 12th birthday, and happy birthday to them. Today they released a bouncy ball doodle to celebrate, which is quite cool and very well done.

But contrary to the many many messages on Twitter (there’s too many to link to!) and reports of online magazines, it’s not HTML5.

Sure the Google page uses the HTML5 doctype, but it also uses the deprecated <center> element. The code had been reverse engineered by some and posted online, and it’s very clever JavaScript that moves and resizes standard HTML <div> elements.

But not HTML5.

It has, however, been reproduced in HTML5 by Rob Hawkes who uses HTML5, the canvas element and JavaScript to create Google’s bouncing balls.

This IS HTML5.

I’m quite surprised that Google didn’t use canvas and HTML5 since they’re actively pushing this technology. Maybe they were unable to do it. Rob coded it in a morning. Perhaps they should talk to him.

If in doubt though, ask yourself are Google’s bouncing balls HTML5?