Today I came across a really clever use of HTML5 technologies being applied to a common problem in LaTeX: finding the package and code for special symbols. It is called Detexify – it relies on HTML5 features so you need a fairly recent browser. I am really excited by the potential offered through the rising technologies of HTML5, SVG and the canvas element (among many others) and I can’t help wondering what wonderful authorship tools and interfaces will be developed to work in the browser. I know that SVG has been around for a long time, indeed I first started working with it more than 6 years ago, so it is nice to see it becoming “potentially mainstream” real soon… Already, canvasdemos.com gives a flavour of the possible with the canvas element. I can see innumerable applications of these technologies, especially in the domains of creating, writing and sharing scientific content. It is easy to imagine complete authoring applications being written to work in the browser, and surely it cannot be that far away: writing in the medium, for the medium.