<meta charset="utf-8"> vs <meta http-equiv="Content-Type">

Question

In order to define charset for HTML5 Doctype, which notation should I use?

1. Short:

   <meta charset="utf-8" /> 
   

2. Long:

   <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8" />
   

Answer 1

In HTML5, they are equivalent. Use the shorter one, it is easier to remember and type. Browser support is fine since it was designed for backwards compatibility.