zlacker

>>dochtm+(OP)
We don't have to speculate, we've been through this already during the IE4 to IE6 era.

Microsoft just did whatever they wanted with the web "platform", and so will Google.

In Microsoft's case what they wanted was nothing. They weren't a web business, saw it as a threat to their platform leverage, and so just left it abandoned and stagnant for years.

Google is simultaneously better and worse: they won't leave it stagnant because the web is their platform, but on the other hand they have a lot more to gain by abusing control of it.

>>paol+B6
Ajax?

>>MikusR+dd
Yep, XMLHttpRequest was literally the only thing to come out of years of Microsoft tenure. Fun fact: it was added so that they could make the Outlook web interface.

Edit: well, that and ActiveX, but that's not a good thing...

>>paol+qd
Microsoft exposed virtually all elements in the DOM. Netscape was extremely limited in this regard.

>>fullst+Lg
They also definitely advanced the CSS more than Netscape.

modern DOM, Ajax, modern CSS, bunch of other small details of JS, all iirc came from IE.

>>p_l+fh
Development between IE4 and 5.5 was massive.