The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) is to retire its working group for XHTML2 in order to focus more on HTML5, signalling a move which could affect IT support everywhere, it is believed.

Version 5 has been long-awaited, according to technological experts at V3, and it is hoped this step made by the W3C could potentially revolutionise the industry in the space of the next couple of years.

Furthermore, it is believed that such coding could effectively write off the need to have such programs as Adobe Flash and Microsoft's Silverlight.

The W3C said: "While we recognise the value of the XHTML2 Working Group's contributions over the years, after discussion with the participants, W3C management has decided to allow the Working Group's charter to expire at the end of 2009 and not to renew it."

Tim Berners-Lee is the W3C director as well as the inventor of the world wide web, serving since the group's creation in 1994.

According to a recent survey by Connect, the two biggest IT headaches for businesses were 'everyday hassles with IT' (37 per cent) and 'security concerns' (32 per cent).