The introduction of the <picture> tag

Chrome 38 is introducing extensions to HTML5. Welcome the <picture> tag. The tag will allow a simpler and more elegant way of sending multiple versions of a graphic, making responsive design that much easier to implement.

<picture>
    <source media="(min-width: 45em)" srcset="large.jpg">
    <source media="(min-width: 32em)" srcset="med.jpg">
    <img src="small.jpg" alt="">
</picture>

It's also introducing some new ES6 feature- which will make storing and interacting with data simpler.

The End of XHTML

Long Live HTML. Only 6 or 7 years ago it looked as if HTML was to be supplanted by XHTML, and now HTML survives and, in the taxonomy of HTML, XHTML turns out to be just another truncated branch.

While we recognize the value of the XHTML 2 Working Group's contributions over the years, after discussion with the participants, W3C management has decided to allow the Working Group's charter to expire at the end of 2009 and not to renew it.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the future of XHTML

A central aspect of HTML5, and the retreat from XHTML is the abandonment of decentralized extensibility:

HTML 5 has a number of extensibility mechanisms, but none yet that satisfies the requirement XML namespaces was designed to address of decentralized extensibility - allowing parties to include their own elements or attributes in content without risk of name collisions (whether those names are the result of a consensus process or not).
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) about the future of XHTML

Is this a good thing? Maybe. XML survives and organizations retain the ability to give access to priority data without giving access to their database.

What is XHTML?

There are times, when discussing HTML, that XHTML enters the discussions. A lot of clients have expressed confused ideas when it comes to XHTML.

There are two reasons for the development of XHTML. The first is clean up, and remove, vestigial code. As HTML developed a lot of standards and code snipets were proposed, some never got off the launch pad, some were developed and died on the vine and others remained and are in existence today. XHTML is a new standard that will better organize the standards and remove unwanted code.

The second reason, and one that excites developers, is the ability for each developer, each company to extend the language as needed. In affect XTHML promises two seemingly contradictory goals. The first is that it would remove the dead weight of past mistakes and second it would allow each developer, each organization to make its own code - and hence their own mistakes; their own dead weight of no longer needed code. Of course, that means that each developer, each organization, can also keep their code libraries in order and up-to-date.

What does it mean to you the business user? Nothing at all. If XHTML is adopted as a standard your organization’s existing code will still work. It would mean that the next time one does a site redesign the developers would start incorporating XHTML elements. This is a coding issue and is something that should not be a concern to the business user anymore than any other coding issue. It will be years before XHTML becomes a standard and more years after that before your site becomes "unusable." For all we know XHTML will never be adopted.