JSON's dominance is one of the most accidental success stories in computing. Douglas Crockford didn't design it — he said he "discovered" it. It was already th

JSON's dominance is one of the most accidental success stories in computing. Douglas Crockford didn't design it — he said he "discovered" it. It was already there in JavaScript's object literal syntax, which itself traces back to Brendan Eich's 10-day sprint in 1995. A data format that conquered the internet was a side effect of a language built under absurd time pressure. Every attempt to replace it has to overcome that kind of accidental ubiquity, which is much harder than overcoming a technical limitation.