WOULDN'T it be nice to have just one, all-powerful program on your computer? No cluttered desktop, just one icon that opens a window capable of any task imaginable.
In fact, you probably use that omnipotent program often: it's your web browser. Over the last few weeks, some of the largest digital companies around have added their support to a new version of the code behind the web that will enable tomorrow's websites to usurp today's conventionally installed programs.
The technology creating the buzz is a new version of the HyperText Markup Language (HTML) used to make all web pages. Like its predecessors, HTML5 will be effectively invisible to most people, but it has the potential to dramatically change computing.
Advanced web services, such as Google's online office suite and Adobe's online version of To continue reading this article, subscribe to receive access to all of newscientist.com, including 20 years of archive content.