On the web real standards usually evolve out of best practices of hackers. The "standards" set by standards bodies are standard in name only, for the most part

On the web real standards usually evolve out of best practices of hackers. The "standards" set by standards bodies are standard in name only, for the most part. They publish a large specification and people keep what is useful and discard what sucks. Or if you are Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, etc you create your own proprietary stuff. I used to worry about standards until I realized that it costs time and money when and as long as the browsers are following a single standard its a waste of energy. Now if it works in all the browsers I push it live, standard or not. If it breaks, I fix it and then push it again. It is all a big coordination game really. An invisible hand works well enough in the web marketplace of ideas.