Which web browsers should I support if I am using HTML semantic elements?

As a web developer I am sure you have asked yourself many times how to decide which web browser your project should support when it is using new HTML5 semantic elements, well today I will try to summarize -with this short article- a list of resources and suggestions that could help you with this task.

html5-badge-h-semantics

After studying compatibility among most popular browsers and HTML5 + CSS3, I consider your target should be:

  • Internet Explorer 7+
  • Firefox 19.0+
  • Chrome 25.0+
  • Safari 5.1+
  • Opera 12.1+
  • iOS Safari 4.0+
  • Opera Mini 7.0+
  • Android Browser 2.2+
  • Blackberry Browser 7.0+

With this list of browsers we can support almost all new semantic elements HTML5. The next figure show a list of web browsers with full-support for HTML5 semantic elements (you can see the full list in: http://caniuse.com/#cats=HTML5). It is true that Internet Explorer 7 and 8 doesn’t support semantic elements but there is a list of “tricks” that we could use in order to create a good solution for that (Mondernizr and Polyfills).

 

semantic-elements

Figure 1. Semantic elements support in different web browsers.

Related Resources

Below there is a list of websites where more information about this topic can be found.

That’s it!

Be happy with your code!

Alex Arriaga

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