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> I think for this we can blame Chromium's dominance. As the author said, many of these features were probably motivated by Chrome OS. And the devil's bargain o

> I think for this we can blame Chromium's dominance. As the author said, many of these features were probably motivated by Chrome OS. And the devil's bargain of letting Chromium take such complete control over the web is that Google can strongarm whichever new "standards" they like into the Web. The dark side to this is that the Chrome team can implement an API as an experiment, then when it's ready, propose it to the standards body and push it through before anybody else can catch up.

_bxg1 6y ago
Yeah, that too
deleted 6y ago
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andrewguenther 6y ago
I don't really see it as a dark side, but an important part of standardization. Why standardize an API no one wants? What's the best way to know someone wants it? What's the best way to work out the kinks in a proposal? A reference implementation. I get what you're saying though. Google has the manpower to crank these out at a volume none of its competitors can, but I don't think that's a failure of the standards process.
- pferde 6y ago
  I don't think it's about the manpower, but more about controlling a browser engine that powers an ever-increasing number of mainstream browsers. Chrome's lumbering march to total dominance has been frightening to watch for many years now, and it only seems to be accelerating.
  - londons_explore 6y ago
    The fact they accept PRs from outside changes your argument a little. If you have a good idea for a new web standard, you can download the chromium source, add your new standard, build your cool webservice to work with it, and send the chromium OWNERS (many of whom don't work for Google) a PR. Sure, there will be a bunch of rounds of review and questioning if your feature really is suitable for the whole web, but at the end of the day you'll probably get it in. Then you can add it to Firefox. You could theoretically add it to safari too, but they don't really like taking PR's these days...

_bxg1 6y ago

Yeah, that too

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

andrewguenther 6y ago

I don't really see it as a dark side, but an important part of standardization. Why standardize an API no one wants? What's the best way to know someone wants it? What's the best way to work out the kinks in a proposal? A reference implementation. I get what you're saying though. Google has the manpower to crank these out at a volume none of its competitors can, but I don't think that's a failure of the standards process.

pferde 6y ago
I don't think it's about the manpower, but more about controlling a browser engine that powers an ever-increasing number of mainstream browsers. Chrome's lumbering march to total dominance has been frightening to watch for many years now, and it only seems to be accelerating.
- londons_explore 6y ago
  The fact they accept PRs from outside changes your argument a little. If you have a good idea for a new web standard, you can download the chromium source, add your new standard, build your cool webservice to work with it, and send the chromium OWNERS (many of whom don't work for Google) a PR. Sure, there will be a bunch of rounds of review and questioning if your feature really is suitable for the whole web, but at the end of the day you'll probably get it in. Then you can add it to Firefox. You could theoretically add it to safari too, but they don't really like taking PR's these days...