The HTML5 open standard has been finalized

Nearly two years after the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) said that the HTML5 project was "feature complete," the group now says that the open standard for HTML5 is ready to go. Paul Cotton, Microsoft's co-chair of the W3C HTML Working Group, today revealed the W3C Recommendation for the HTML5 open standard, which now serves as the cornerstone of the W3C Open Web Platform. Essentially, the W3C says that this is the fifth and final version of the open standard used to build applications and pages for the web, although the group says it will continue to build on top of this. "For application developers and industry, HTML5 represents a set of features that people will be able to rely on for years to come," said the group. "HTML5 is now supported on a wide variety of devices, lowering the cost of creating rich applications to reach users everywhere." The W3C will now focus on lowering the cost of developing cross-platform apps, while boosting security, development and performance options. You can read Cotton's statement on the Microsoft Open Technologies blog, and catch up on the full recommendation from the W3C here.