The future of HTML

Ed Dumbill from IBM wrote about the future of HTML . His view is that HTML is not very good language for building web pages. At least the best we have at this moment.
There was a progress...

HTML's ease of learning and the view source capability for browsers has bootstrapped the Web's popularity in an amazing way. The World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) involvement in standardizing HTML has ensured that Web browsers all implement the same dialect, more or less. The emergence of CSS, and the corresponding growth of standards-based Web design as best practice has also averted HTML chaos and led to a better Web experience for users and developers alike.

As I understand, the point is making user interface more dynamic and enabling browsers to more closely work with web based apps and systems making seemless experience.

Ajax method is only one solution, but as Ed states, it's not standardized. Browsere vendors ( like Mozilla and Opera ) are wanting more. Their proposition is HTML5 or Web Application 1.0 and Web Forms 2.

Many of these future enhancements are already , at least conceptualy, in use on the web with JavaScript combinations.

W3C has the ball to bless.