Restaurants have heard the buzz about mobile devices. In 2011, 31.8 percent of handsets that were sold were smartphones and there were 234 million people age 13 and up who owned a mobile device in the United States. But what is new is not the devices themselves, but how people are viewing online webpages with them.
HTML 5 is the newest language of the internet. HTML, or HyperText Markup Language, is the language that developers use to build webpages. The most recent form of this, HTML 5, allows for a variety of different upgraded resources for developers and makes for a better online experience for users.
HTML 5 replaced the need for plug-ins in order to view media online. Usually, Flash or some other add-on is needed to view video and photos online, but HTML 5 allows tags like and to be placed in the webpage code which satisfies this need without plug-ins. The photos and videos are also in high resolution and have the capability of zoom which makes it easier to see them on the mobile device’s screen.
The webpages designed with HTML 5 are very similar to apps. Users can flip through the pages just like they would an app, but they do not need to go through the hassle of downloading it. Browsers also save information for the users so they can access it later when they revisit the page. A feature that is very useful for restaurants is the location awareness feature. This allows restaurants to have their pages set up so when a user logs in, the webpage will tell them where the nearest store to them is located.
There are about 1.2 billion mobile web users in the world. In January 2012, 8.94 percent of website hits were from mobile devices. It is easy to see that people are buying and using their mobile devices more frequently to view online content. With the aid of HTML 5, restaurants have the ability to upgrade their sites, make them more engaging and easier to use, and eventually tap into the vast amount of potential customers using mobile devices.
MenuDrive recently launched its Drive Plan which includes the new Mobile Optimization HTML 5 for their websites. Restaurants who decided to use the plan will be given a website that is viewable on mobile devices as well as computers. If you have any questions or are interested in trying the Drive Plan, contact MenuDrive at 877-787-6368.

Savanna Eckenrode
MenuDrive
www.menudrive.com

Tags: html 5, mobile ordering system

Posted in digital menu, New Technology, Online Food Ordering, Restaurant Industry Trends