To me it is an either/or situation because it is easier to have everyone using the same technology and tooling rather than two very different sets of tools. My small team will be more productive if all 7 are using the js+html5 rather than 3 using flash and 4 developing in js + html5. Consolidating on one platform will make it easier to share knowledge between team members rather than having it split between the “flash guys” and the “html5 guys.”

That is fascinating. I was wondering if teams were actually forced with an “either/or” scenario.

I’m glad to see that you like jQuery. The Esoteric Techie has a friend who is a contributor to the jQuery team. We are all fans of it and support it. In fact, I would recommend that you add him to your list of blogs to follow. >> Brandon Aaron

In response to Adobe keeping up with Google, I think it is all about niche. Adobe has it’s niche and is a clear leader. I don’t see them as “behind” Google in the world of web development tools. However, Google has an enormous talent base and huge funding. I think it is more likely that Google will invent something new rather than try to compete with Adobe’s Flash Player.

One more thing, while I am a big fan of Google, I have noticed that when they purchase and take over existing intellectual properties, the technological progress with those properties slows down. My example would be their acquisition of DoubleClick, the online advertising giant. DoubleClick’s advancements in the space have crawled to a stop. They have spent the last two years trying to grow their customer base, which they have done and which has made them a lot of money, but there has been little to no innovation on the technology front from DoubleClick since the buyout.

On a side note, the new Google Nexus One supports the latest and greatest Flash Player version 10.1. So, there may be some hope left for Flash making it in the mobile world.

Changing course, the current project I’m doing in GWT (a Google toolkit that lets you write in Java and convert to JavaScript). It’s like Flash in the sense you build once and it generally works out of the box on different browsers without messing with JavaScript; and it’s like plain HTML/JavaScript because that’s what it produces. I’m happy so far, feel better than I felt with my earlier Flex project.

“I can make a text box glow red if you leave it blank.”

Good for you. You can do the same thing with JavaScript today. No need for HTML 5 here.

“I can make new options on the form appear based on your current selection.”

You don’t need HTML 5 for this either.

“Not only can I make those new options appear, I can make them slide in from the right side of the page and then have their font change color to be sure that you notice them.”

Again, you can do this in JavaScript. The possibilities of making a form more user friendly using JavaScript and existing HTML is limited only by my imagination. Nothing of what you describe here requires HTML 5.