Image via CrunchBase With every modern web browser supporting HTML5 , its adoption in online mapping is on the rise. GIS Cloud who started off with flash based map rendering, have switched to HTML5 as their default map engine earlier this week. GIS Cloud regards HTML5 as ideal for map rendering: HTML5 is great for mapping not only because it can render maps very quickly, but also because it is a standard. It works on the desktop, on the web, on smartphones and on tablets which means your GIS can work on those devices as well! No need to build native apps for each of those platforms, with HTML5 you get high performance right from the browser.