The Good Stuff HTML is probably the most portable markup language in the world. It is supported by over 100 million Web browsers, and is becoming the de facto standard for transmitting information between people. HTML is easy to learn because it is very simple. There are only a couple dozen tags, but less than half of them are used in most situations. In working with HTML for just a few years, it has become very evident to users that the hypertext model really does work across systems that are otherwise unrelated.
Any page can link to any other publicly accessible page simply by entering the address.
There are some specialized structures in HTML, but they are mostly used to effect a certain formatting look. Because of the simplicity and low cost of HTML, a huge information base has been formed that makes HTML even more valuable. The Bad Stuff HTML's simplicity, while making it valuable as a basic way of delivering simply structured information, causes it to fall short of being a long-term method of delivering complex information types. HTML does not handle multiple-column snaking very well, either. However, because of the nearly universal compatibility, web site designers are getting around these problems by using tables to fake multiple columns and indents, GIF graphics to create certain designs with type and white space, and other such machinations.