Grooveshark recently deployed an updated UI done in HTML5 instead of Flash. In a word, it's awesome. Scrolling is smoother. Text is fully selectable. I like being able to resize the UI (I don't think their previous Flash interface allowed zooming at all). I really hope Grooveshark can find a successful revenue model that will keep it alive.
But this just seems to be part of the overall growing trend towards sexy HTML5 user interfaces. Netflix is another one as described in their recent post.
The industry has been steadily shifting into the next phase of web development for a couple years - we're nearly there now. Well since IE6 is no longer a concern (or hadn't you heard - less than 5% of web users last month and still dropping), IE7 is quickly shuffling off the stage (~12% and steadily dropping), and IE9 is waiting in the wings.
Oh and IE8?
Yeah I don't share in the pessimism of some who think that IE8 is the new IE6. And there are a lot of reasons I don't:
- Month-by-month, the total marketshare of all IE versions combined has been steadily dropping. From 95% six years ago to about 50% now. Any gains on this percentage will be with IE9, not anything older.
- There are now more major modern browsers and platforms than ever before supported by companies with lots of cash and lots of push.
- Unlike IE6 at the time, IE8 simply does not have the capabilities expected of the average web developer. Given the numbers in my first point, next year there will be more users supporting SVG, Canvas, HTML5 audio/video than don't. It makes mathematical sense to target modern browsers first.
- In a year and a half, Windows 7 went from nothing to a quarter of all desktops. At the end of next year, I predict XP users will be a minority among Microsoft desktops. Any Windows 7 users will be using IE9 in a year, not IE8.
- Google's Chrome Frame plugin can be used to target IE8- users if you can convince them to download/install it. Disclaimer: I work for Google.
As for my own responsibility as a web developer... well, I've been developing for IE9+ for about 5 years now. I just didn't know it at the time π
As a matter of fact, it doesn’t seems to work in any modern browser, Grooveshark doesn’t work in Chromium, Opera, Arora, Midori or Epiphany on my computer. So it’s not standard or anything it’s just marketing and bad code that doesn’t work if you don’t use *the* specific browser they used to test the website. What a shame, it seems like back in the IE4/NS4 days.
bohwaz – actually it works just fine for me on Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, Opera (11 Beta), Arora (0.10.1) on my Macbook. What specifically is not working for you? (Note that it does use Flash still for playing the actual audio).
It’s a great improvement! But I still think it lacks usability. The iPhone App as well. So as long as it costs $9 a month (or some annoying advertisements), I am still using snoost.com π
Viewed the source code, saw an XHTML doctype and then looked at the media type and saw text/html…so the HTML5 is where? It did work fine for me however…how indie are the artists though? I do like the format of the site in general…a little rough though I do like it.
XP users aren’t the problem, people using IE6/7/8 are. Microsoft wants people to upgrade to their totally borked Windows 7 OS which is absolutely horrible as a production environment. I’m slowly warming up to Linux though Linux-heads need to seriously stop telling people to use the console for everything under the sun.
Jeff, you should blog a little more! I finally updated my site though I think I’ll be stuck using Flash for my music player until Microsoft supports open source codecs so…Flash in 2030?
@John: Yeah I’m definitely guilty of using the horrible umbrella term for “the fancy new web stuff” π
As for my XP argument, since IE9 is only going to be supported on Vista or later, the XP users will be the problem in the long run. The other Windows users will eventually slide up to IE9.
Yeah, I agree – I should blog a little more! π
Congrats on getting your site up and running. I’ve been reading your blog posts, though I haven’t commented since you have a signup/login requirement. I prefer using a common login-system like Facebook, Google, or OpenID. Is that on the plate for a future version of your blog?
I do think Grooveshark is forward thinking in it’s approach, I just didn’t see any HTML5. *shrug*
Thanks! Yeah I’ve considered anonymous blog comments though I wanted to get everything working for my big three-zero bday; it’ll happen eventually. As far as third party stuff services that’s most likely going to come after the same copy of software can handle multiple domains and some other important features make it, maybe late spring/summer 2011? I’ll send you an email in a bit about some other awesome stuff. π
Just found a tool making it possible to download Music from Grooveshark. Found it here: http://groovedown.tasteless.us/
Have fun