2011 was an exciting year for the web development community. We saw the rise of mobile, coined concepts like mobile-first and responsive and braced ourselves for a future where anything could be seen by anyone, anywhere, on any device. It was a great year for experimentation and mucking about, but now it's time to get serious. The question is, can we still control the beasts that responsive and mobile-first have become?

So yeah, we've now reached the point where we are worrying about efficiently implementing things like 3d-transforms in css, how cool is that? Exciting times no doubt, but one would assume this means that all the basics of visual layouting would be covered by now. Well ... no, not in the slightest. So let's take a peek at one of the most basic issues that still exists in modern day web development and try and look for some ways to work around it.

Not too long ago I wrote about the real-life use of html5 microdata and how it takes us one step closer to the ideal of a semantic web. While I'm still pretty excited to see the web expand in this direction, there is at least one serious bump in the road worth mentioning. Bottom line: the easier it is for crawlers and other pieces of software to read our data, the easier it becomes for them to steal our data for their own gain. And currently we have no way to protect ourselves.

With only a couple more days to go until the new year, it's once again time (check the 2008 and 2010 editions) to look back at the various web-related things I wrote during past year, selecting the articles I think were the most important, most relevant or most interesting. As always you won't find anything new here, but if you're still looking for some worthy web-related new year resolutions, there should be plenty that suits your needs.

Sometimes people can be so focused on theory that they completely miss the fact that real life has already caught up with theory. Last week I discovered that html5 microdata can finally be used in the wild, so I jumped on it for some cosy semantic experimentations. I voiced my concerns on html5 microdata in the past, but I wouldn't miss the change to see the semantic web in action, especially not when Google is on board and ready for some semantic magic.