I’m a pretty cynical person when it comes to large companies and while I do believe that Google’s main objective is to make money, they at least seem to go about it in a way that’s helpful to the community. I’ve heard stories of iPhone app developers wanting to build apps for Android and then Google contacting them and offering them a free Nexus One to test on. To me, that sounds like a company that wants to make money and wants to people that make things for them to be happy. Is that a knock on Apple? Maybe a little bit. Apple makes amazing computers and I would love to own a Macbook Pro, but I would also love to own a Mercedes-Benz. That’s how I view Apple, if you can afford it, then awesome, if not, there are other cars that will get you there.

Microsoft used to be about control, trying to drive out Netscape and force the web to be the way they wanted it but now, thanks to the US government mainly, they’re a bit more open and willing to work with others. Apple seems to be going down the same path, trying to dictate what they think the future of the web is. After the announcement of the VP8 codec, even Microsoft announced that Internet Explorer 9 would support it, the only hold out is Apple and Safari. Why? Some people think it’s because of the amount of money and development Apple’s put into the h.264 codec. I don’t think Apple will win this battle, if they’re the only browser that doesn’t support VP8, I can’t see people using h.264 just to keep Apple happy. Webmonkey has more info on it.

I’m not naive, I know Google’s main goal is to make as much money as possible, but if they’re going to put out open source tools for us to use and, with technology like Chrome, speed up the web, then I’m right there with them. I know not everyone has a great opinion of Google, I have a friend who says that simply because Google’s motto is “Do no evil” means their up to something and who knows, maybe they are. But if they make my job easier and make the web a better experience, then as long as they give me a cool robot body when they take over, I’m with Google.

Yes, it’s true. Microsoft is 100% about HTML5 with IE9. And I’ve been saying for a while, the future of the web won’t get here until Microsoft supports it. Well, it looks like 2011 is going to be the year we developers can really begin showing what HTML5 and, to a lesser extent, CSS3 can do. I never thought I would say this, but we should all be excited for IE9. If Microsoft actually brings out IE9 with all the features they demoed, HTML5 video will take off and I’m really interested in the SVG stuff they demoed. In the MIX10 session, they kept comparing IE9 to Chrome, so I think we know who Microsoft sees as the big threat right now. And I know it has zero practical value, but when they showed IE9 running TWO HTML5 HD videos running at the same time on the same page without dropping frames or destroying the processor, I was impressed. Is it enough to make me want to switch, probably not, but I won’t look down on people that use IE anymore. OK, yeah I will, but I’m a snob.

Internet Explorer 9 isn’t out until the end of the year, but you can download a preview version at ietestdrive.com. Get excited, get ready, the stuff we are going to be able to make now is going to be amazing.

Why am I so excited? It’s probably the little things, like being able to rotate elements or add gradients with out using images. Anytime you can use code to build an element and not use an image, the file size is going to be smaller and the page is going to load faster. I love building sites with CSS and rarely do I go back to the designer I’m working with and say “I can’t do that.” I enjoy the challenge, but most of the time, when there something that I can’t build, it’s something that I’ll be able to do with CSS3. I’m excited because this is going to open up new design possibilities that we haven’t be able to do yet. HTML5 will change the functionality of the web, but CCS3 will change the face of it.

Today I came across a link to 50 Awesome Animations made with CSS3 and although most of them only work in Safari and Chrome, it’s pretty exciting to see what can be done with CSS3. Some of them need Javascript, which is something I’m not too thrilled about. Why? Because one of the main complaints against Flash is it being a CPU hog and the cause of this a majority of the time is bad coding. And the amount of bad Javascript code out there dwarfs bad ActionScript code, so if CSS3 increases the amount of JS out there, I’m really hoping Microsoft steals V8, Chrome’s JS rendering engine! It’s open-source, but it would be more fun for everyone if MS stole it.

But once again, like my post about HTML5, we are going to have to wait for Microsoft to support CSS3 before we can really use it. Everything I read about CSS3 now tells you to make it look one way for supporting browsers and then another, less attractive way for IE. I don’t mind designs appearing a little different from browser to browser, but I have no interest in a site appearing completely different in one compared to the rest. Hopefully, with IE9 being released at the end of this year, Microsoft will add full CSS3 support and we can take the Internet to the next level, in terms of design.

The bottom line it this, CSS3 is going let us do things the either we weren’t able to do before or we needed something like Flash to create. It’s going to take some time, but over the next couple of years, what we are going to be able to do with a “static” web page is going to be amazing. The future is here, the rest of the Internet just needs to catch up!