Google served as a well-placed catalyst, due to their broad interests. I don’t doubt that it would have taken longer to happen had they not been involved (thoug

Google served as a well-placed catalyst, due to their broad interests. I don’t doubt that it would have taken longer to happen had they not been involved (though what “involved” means is fiddly, given that being deliberately not-involved would act as a significant retarding force, given the popularity of their browser), but I do believe that it would still have happened eventually. (The word catalyst isn’t quite right because Google took part in the reaction, but it’s the closest word to what I want that I can immediately think of.)