Douglas Crockford, a JavaScript architect at Yahoo and the man behind JSON, the JavaScript Object Notation, says he welcomes a browser war if it will bring innovation in the browser space and move the Web forward. Crockford says the browser war between Microsoft and Netscape moved the Web forward but introduced bugs into the network.VIENNA, Va.—Douglas Crockford, a JavaScript architect at Yahoo and founder of the JavaScript Object Notation, says he wants a browser war. Well, with Google's introduction of its Chrome browser Sept. 2 he just may have it.
During a keynote at the Rich Web Experience conference here Sept. 4, Crockford said the term "Web time" used to mean "fast," but not anymore. The last time ECMAScript and HTML were revised was in 1999, an era when things happened fast on the Web, he said. "What happened then?" Crockford asked, questioning the source of that speed. "They had a browser war. I want a browser war," he said, although acknowledging that the industry still needs to undo some of the pain of the last browser war.
"It turns out a browser war is a good thing," although most of the pain will be borne by Web developers and users, Crockford said.
Crockford said innovation should be happening in research labs and not in standards bodies. Indeed, some of the "good works" in the Web world of late include AJAX, JSON, Google Gears, XDomain Request from Microsoft, and Google's Chrome. "I'm not sure if Chrome's going to be successful on its own or not," Crockford said.
Read the rest of this article on eWEEK.com.
