Blog

You may recall the halcyon days of the late ‘90s: Amazon was just a book store, Google wasn’t the top search engine, and Internet Explorer was an upstart Web browser challenging the domination of Netscape Navigator. In those days, the top browsers competed by adding non-standard features and extensions to the nascent HTML, CSS, and JavaScript syntax.

The concept of “Web Standards” was unfamiliar to the majority of Web developers, who gladly implemented browser-specific hacks to implement the latest and greatest techniques on their Web pages. It was a time of rapid divergence—browser makers ignoring standards and consistency in the name of differentiation and market share.

We all know the outcome: Internet Explorer won the browser wars. But the story didn’t end there. Navigator was reborn as Firefox, new browsers such as Safari and Opera advanced rapidly to challenge the market leaders, and a new era of modern browser wars was born. Only this time, it is no longer a war of divergence—now the battle is all about convergence on a common set of well established standards.

Not since the pre-bubble days of Navigator vs. IE has Web browser development been so active. The Mozilla team is nearing completion of Firefox 3, the WebKit team has released rapid-fire updates to the engine that powers Safari and the iPhone, and the Opera team continues to push the envelope with new upgrades. With each new version, the browser-makers converge on consistency and standards-compliance even as they improve speed and usability.

Even Microsoft, the clear “winner” of the last browser war, is now playing catch-up in this new battlefield, releasing IE 7 after a long hiatus and nearing completion on the new IE 8. Like the other browser makers, each new IE version has taken great leaps not necessarily in features or extensions, but in standards-compliance. Even the market leader can see the writing on the wall as both Web developers and end users clamor for standards and consistency.

It has been a Renaissance of Web browser development. Or perhaps it can be called the Golden Age of Web browsers. Like any Golden Age, it is characterized by a rapid pace of advancement, with different groups driving each other at an ever-advancing pace of development. Innovation, performance, and standardization are just a few of the benefits.