Web standards in 2001: Everything will be interoperable because we'll all use XML, it'll allow easy embedding of various formats, you'll only need an XML parser

Web standards in 2001: Everything will be interoperable because we'll all use XML, it'll allow easy embedding of various formats, you'll only need an XML parser and you'll be able to read any document, and with XSL/XPath getting the information you want will be easy. Web standards in 2021: Don't need interoperability if everyone is using Chrome, and thanks to the living standard if you want to compete you'll not only need to implement a spec that is changing daily, but you'll also need to implement all the bugs in Chrome as they'll eventually become part of the spec, and any unrelated specs that disagree with Chrome will end up having to be changed too! Switching to FF is good, but the reality is that nothing can compete with the dominant players in this morass, so we'll never see new entrants. The Chrome team will determine the direction almost all software moves in probably for the next 2-3 decades at least barring some sort of legislative action by the worlds governments