State of the Browser 2022

@brucel
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@brucel
“History is written
by the winners”
- Mark Twain

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@brucel

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@brucel
Sgrah /
fl
ickr

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@brucel
Fake Gnus.

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@brucel

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@brucel
October 1998

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@brucel
For the Good of the Web: An Open Letter to Netscape

(20 July 2000)

TWO YEARS AGO, when your market share was still high as a
kite, you pledged to fully support
fi
ve key standards in the
next version of your browser...

At last you are talking about shipping product by the end of
the year. Sounds great – except that it’s the wrong year.

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@brucel
Continuing to periodically “upgrade” your old browser while
failing to address its basic
fl
aws has made it appear that you
still consider Navigator 4 viable. It is not. ... keeping your 4.0
browser on the market has forced developers to continue
writing bad code in order to support it.

If you fail now, the web will essentially belong to a single
company. And for once, nobody will be able to blame them
for “competing unfairly.”

So please, for your own good, and the good of the web,
deliver on your promises while Netscape 6 still has the
chance to make a di
ff
erence.

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@brucel
The
fi
rst public builds of Mozilla
two years later (2000) were rather
disappointing, with many mid-
level PCs of the time too slow to
run the larger codebase

At release, the browser was
deemed too unstable for
production use.

Netscape 6 was facing new
competition from Internet Explorer
6.0, released in the summer of
2001.

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@brucel
I.E. TLE MANIA!

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@brucel
Internet Explorer 6 beta shows great promise
www.techrepublic.com/article/internet-explorer-6-beta-shows-great-promise/1033023
12

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@brucel
Microsoft Internet Explorer offers few quirks and many superb
features... After introducing IE-only layout features such as
scrolling marquees and colored table borders in earlier versions,
Microsoft is now committed to the standards set by the World
Wide Web Consortium.
https://www.pcmag.com/archive/microsoft-internet-explorer-60-31190
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@brucel
IE6 for Windows delivers fine support for
HTML 4, CSS-1, and other important W3C
standards.
web.archive.org/web/20011201032740/http://www.webstandards.org/upgrade/
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@brucel
I Love This Browser! I have loved browsing the
web since I started way back in the mid 90s,
and I really love browsing with IE.
Scott Stearns
Test Manager, IE
blogs.msdn.com/b/ie/archive/2004/07/21/190747.aspx
15

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@brucel
We loved IE6
• DOCTYPE switching (for broken box model)

• HTML Components (.htc
fi
les)

• CSS Expressions

• Page transitions

• IE
fi
lters and DHTML behaviors

• Data binding, saving state 

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@brucel
Bugs bugs bugs
• Peekaboo Bug

• IE Three Pixel Text Jog

• Creeping Text Bug

• Missing First Letter Bug

• Phantom Box Bug

• Duplicate Indent Bug

• Doubled Float-Margin Bug

• Unscrollable Content Bug

• IE 6 Duplicate Characters Bug

• Creeping Text Bug

• Disappearing List-Background Bug

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@brucel
Voodoo CSS
* html div {position: relative;}

* html div {zoom: 1;}

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@brucel
DX > UX ??

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@brucel
Microsoft decided to tightly couple new
Internet Explorer releases to Windows
releases. So they dismantled the Internet
Explorer team and integrated it into the
Windows product team.

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@brucel
MicroZzZoft
Windows Vista was massively delayed, which delayed a new
Internet Explorer release and left the web in a vacuum, with
no one
fi
xing bugs and improving existing technology. When
Microsoft woke up
fi
ve years later, it was already too late.

https://dev.to/schepp/today-the-trident-era-ends-7k5

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@brucel
Google pays AdSense publishers (Web site owners) $1 for
each new user who installs Firefox + Google Toolbar as a
result of a referral link from one of their pages.

https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/a-dangerous-con
fl
ict-of-interest-between-
fi
refox-and-google/

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@brucel
Firefox gains
June 2004
Firefox downloads surge after US government
warns of security exploits in Internet Explorer
December 2004
Community sponsored advertisement for Firefox
appears in the New York Times

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@brucel

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@brucel
Napple
SVP of software Eddy Cue, who reports directly to Tim
Cook, wrote in 2013

“The reason we lost Safari on Windows is the same reason
we are losing Safari on Mac. We didn’t innovate or enhance
Safari….We had an amazing start and then stopped
innovating… Look at Chrome. They put out releases at least
every month while we basically do it once a year.”

https://twitter.com/patrickmcgee_/status/1389632382244847623?lang=en

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@brucel
Progressive Web Apps
• Web sites ++

• Can save to home screen, open full-screen

• Can work o
ff
l
ine (using Service Workers)

• Much smaller initial install, instant updates but
only the changes

• Twitter, Wordle
web.dev/learn/pwa/

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@brucel

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@brucel
APIs not in Safari

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@brucel
Rule 2.5.6
Apps that browse the web must use the
appropriate WebKit framework and
WebKit Javascript.

https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/#software-requirements

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@brucel
The illusion of competition

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@brucel
The patch gap
WebKit is the outlier in
this analysis, with the
longest number of days
to release a patch at 73
days
https://googleprojectzero.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-walk-through-project-zero-metrics.html

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@brucel

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@brucel
open-web-advocacy.org

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@brucel

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@brucel
Browsers are powered by an ‘engine,’ which is
fundamental to browser performance.… Apple bans
alternatives to its own browser engine on its mobile
devices; a restriction that is unique to Apple.

The CMA is concerned this severely limits the
potential for rival browsers to di
ff
erentiate
themselves from Safari (for example, on features
such as speed and functionality) and limits Apple’s
incentives to invest in its browser engine.

This restriction also seriously inhibits the capability
of web apps – apps that run on a browser rather than
having to be individually downloaded – depriving
consumers and businesses of the full bene
fi
ts of
this innovative technology.

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/cma-plans-market-investigation-into-mobile-browsers-and-cloud-gaming

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@brucel
https://questions-statements.parliament.uk/written-questions/detail/2022-10-10/59784

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@brucel

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@brucel
Gatekeepers can no longer:

• rank their own products or services higher than those of
others (self-preferencing)

• reuse private data collected during a service for the purposes
of another service

• establish unfair conditions for business users

• pre-install certain software applications

• require app developers to use certain services (e.g. payment
systems or identity providers) in order to be listed in app
stores

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@brucel
Browser engines
each browser is built on a web browser engine, which is
responsible for key browser functionality such as speed,
reliability and web compatibility. When gatekeepers operate
and impose web browser engines, they are in a position
to determine the functionality and standards that will
apply not only to their own web browsers, but also to
competing web browsers and, in turn, to web software
applications.

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@brucel
Gatekeepers should therefore not use their position to require
their dependent business users to use any of the services
provided together with, or in support of, core platform
services by the gatekeeper itself as part of the provision of
services or products by those business users

gatekeepers should also be prohibited from requiring end
users to use such services

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@brucel
Big teeth
If a gatekeeper violates the rules
laid down in the legislation, it
risks a
fi
ne of up to 10% of its
total worldwide turnover.

For a repeat o
ff
ence, a
fi
ne of up
to 20% of its worldwide
turnover may be imposed.

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@brucel
Apple employees are very sad :-(

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@brucel
Set Safari free!

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@brucel

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@brucel
bruce-lawson.bandcamp.com
• “Wish I’d written this” - Paul McCartney
• “Catchy, if somewhat vapid” - Vengaboys

• “A wondrous debut from a totally
talented megahunk” - Britney Spears
• “OK, but not Canadian enough” - Stinky
Taylar
• “Cheeky cheeky” - The Cheeky Girls

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@brucel
Jim Morrison
December 8, 1943 – July 3,
1971

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@brucel
Amy Winehouse
14 September 1983 – 23 July
2011
Photo by Rama
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amy_Winehouse#/media/
File:Amy_Winehouse_f4962007_crop.jpg

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@brucel
Kurt Cobain
February 20, 1967 – c. April
5, 1994
Photo: Adam Jones https://www.
fl
ickr.com/people/41000732@N04

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@brucel
Jimi Hendrix
November 27, 1942 –
September 18, 1970

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@brucel
Internet Explorer
1995 – June 15, 2022

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@brucel
Thanks and Snogs!
www.brucelawson.co.uk
www.open-web-advocacy.org
58

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State of the Browser 2022

State of the Browser 2022

bruce lawson

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