In keeping with Google ’s enthusiasm for the emerging HTML5 standard , many coming features of the company ’s Gmail Web - based Es - mail avail will be rendered in HTML5 , say Adam de Boor , a staff package engineer working on the overhaul .

“ We have things that we can do much more efficiently in HTML5 , ” say De Boor , speak Thursday at the Usenix WebApps ’ 10 in Boston .

“ HTML5 is exciting to me to that degree as to how many web browser makers are adopting it , ” he say , add together , “ I have gamey Bob Hope forIE9 . ”

One of the principal benefits he point to is how the criterion could speed the loading and execution clock time of Gmail .

Google ’s current end is to get Gmail to load in under a second . “ Speed is a feature , ” he say .

Early trial run have evidence promising . For representative , Gmail attend for those web browser that can operate with version 3 of the Cascading Style Sheets ( CSS ) , a standard nearly touch on to HTML5 . If the web browser brook CSS3 , Gmail will render the pages using these specification , rather than its traditional approach path of using the Document Object Model ( DOM ) . The company has find that using CSS3 can speed the rendering clock time by 12 pct .

HTML5 will also help oneself in building raw features . One feature that the Gmail design team is now form on is the power to drop behind files from the desktop into the internet browser .

This feature film will be important in that it will land Web covering even closer in feature functionality to desktop applications , de Boor said .

Gmail will also make use of goods and services of HTML5 ’s database standards . Now , the e - chain mail serving uses Google Gears to store mail for offline reading , but over time that will migrate to the HTML5 monetary standard .

De Boor also talked about adding new features that could n’t be rendered using HTML5 .

One will be the power to drag file from the web internet browser window onto the desktop . To do this , his team is working on a novel data point transfer protocol , called “ downloadurl . ”

“ We attempt to get this in HTML5 , ” but were unable to do so . He jokingly said that Google will have to buttonhole to have some of the functionality needed to make that happen added into HTML6 , which , as of today , does not exist in any form .

Instead of interpret it into a criterion , the caller will “ encourage other browsers to use it , ” he said .

He remark that the party does n’t was n’t to revisit the “ web browser app warfare ” of the last decade . “ We tried to learn from history and be much more conjunctive to the other web web browser manufacturing business , ” he said .

Another new feature he talked about was something called “ Magic iFrame , ” which would allow a substance abuser to take part of a entanglement page , rendered in a bod , and pull it out and make it its own full Web pageboy in a new internet browser window .

During the doubtfulness - and - answer session , De Boor was ask if he was comfortable using JavaScript for such a large labor .

He admitted that another speech communication , such as Java itself , might be more optimise , but he also noted that Java is a tidy sum more wordy as well . “ At this compass point to me it ’s a thing of choice which language you use , ” he sound out . He defended JavaScript ’s performance , though .

“ Most of the irritation around JavaScript come from how it is enforce in internet browser , ” he said .