Embedding media in HTML5

For many, HTML5 first entered their vocabulary when Apple refused to add support for Flash technology in their iOS devices. Flash had gained market dominance (some would argue market stranglehold) as the plugin of choice to serve up video through a web browser. However, rather than using Adobe’s proprietary technology, Apple decided to rely on HTML5 instead to handle rich media rendering. While HTML5 was making good headway in this area anyway, Apple’s public support of HTML5 gave it a major leg up and helped its media tools gain greater traction in the wider community.

We’ve discussed already that people tend to just use the term HTML rather than HTML5 these days, but that label was important historically in relation to media. Before HTML5, adding video and audio into markup was a bit of a pain. These days, it’s easy.

Adding video and audio in HTML

Here’s a “simple as can be” example of how to link...