Back then, many NoSQL/MongoDB opportunists were in positions of authority on the web. When WebSQL was discussed, those folks pushed the lie that "SQL is SQLite.

Back then, many NoSQL/MongoDB opportunists were in positions of authority on the web. When WebSQL was discussed, those folks pushed the lie that "SQL is SQLite. Therefore, SQL does not belong in the browser". They pretended that SQLite and SQL APIs were the exact same thing, as if no browser could offer a dialect of SQL without fully exposing the database engine running under the hood. In their rhetoric, encapsulation was impossible, the specification was the implementation. With SQL and SQLite conflated, the opportunists were then able to wield the valid argument "SQlite is not a standard. Browsers should be based on standards" against the simple point "SQL ought to be a standard". Once they beat the more reasonable voices into submission and were then free to assert that only NoSQL can be standardized in the browser. Which misdirected years of efforts into IndexedDB. Nowadays, if you look up those opportunists on LinkedIn, you can see their NoSQL careers didn't quite go the way they were expecting. Their wrongdoing is a very, very sore point for them, and it's unfortunate the web had to pay for their hubris. For more details: https://nolanlawson.com/2014/04/26/web-sql-database-in-memoriam/ https://nolanlawson.com/2014/04/26/web-sql-database-in-memor...