Standardization of the Internet and Google Chrome

Author: Bao Gang Yao, Google China Engineering Research Institute R&D DirectorWith the release of Google Chrome, discussions on support for web standards have resurfaced (for more information on web standards, please refer to W3C's published relevant standards). There has been much discussion in the industry about this issue, but the implementation of standardization domestically has not been particularly ideal. Many websites and web applications still lack sufficient support for standards.The reason for this situation is closely related to the fact that many web developers use non-standard features (such as certain IE plugins) when developing websites and web applications, and many sites only support IE or browsers based on IE core. This has resulted in millions of users using other browsers (such as Firefox, Safari, and Google Chrome) potentially being unable to browse some web pages normally. We have received feedback from some users regarding such issues, but our analysis results indicate that the vast majority of similar problems are caused by insufficient support for standards by the websites themselves.

In the long term, non-compliance with standards is very detrimental to the promotion of websites and attracting more users, mainly for the following reasons:

There are increasingly more product choices in the browser market

The widespread attention and enthusiastic user downloads generated by the release of Google Chrome on its launch day show that a large number of Internet users welcome and support having more browser options. Because every new browser introduces more technological innovation in this field.Firefox quickly gained acceptance and popularity after its release, which is a good example. We believe the release of Google Chrome will bring a new leap in browser products and technological innovation.

However, this also brings another headache: do we need to support another standard in the code? In fact, we were aware of this concern from the beginning of browser development, which is why we have been so committed to supporting standardization.

As long as your program is written according to the standards, no changes should be necessary for it to work properly in Google Chrome.

Web standardization helps websites attract more users

Continuous updates and upgrades to browsers will only make web applications more powerful, which will improve everyone's websites and web services, thus bringing more users. From recent product trends, the number of non-IE browser users is increasing. On one hand, the number of users of Firefox, Safari, and Chrome continues to grow. According to data published by Ars Technica, in the United States and Europe, the market share of non-IE browsers has already exceeded 25%. On the other hand, the number of users accessing the Internet via mobile devices (iPhone, Android) is increasing, and many browsers on these terminals are not based on IE. If your website or program supports standards, it can support more users (including mobile users).

Another factor is: with the continuous fermentation and extension of the Olympic effect, China's internationalization is further strengthening, which means that the number of foreign users of domestic Chinese websites will increase, and many of these users use non-IE browsers. Lack of support for standards may mean losing these users.

IE 8.0

IE itself is also continuously enhancing its support for standards. The newly released IE8 beta version defaults to standard mode, which means that even if your website is targeted at IE users, there may be problems in the new version of IE.

In short, standardizing your website and web applications will help you "remain unchanged while adapting to all changes" at a lower cost.

Is your website "standardized"?

It is actually quite simple to check whether your website complies with standards. You can use a browser with good support for standards(such as Firefox, Safari, or Chrome) to test your program code.

Making your website more standardized is not a difficult technical problem. Many websites, such as http://www.w3cn.org/howto/index.html, provide excellent reference information. We also plan to organize some seminars with industry organizations soon to discuss how to better implement this in both the market and technical aspects. At the same time, we will also organize some technical discussions to see how to automatically identify web compatibility issues and how to standardize web pages more quickly. Please stay tuned for our information releases in this area.

If you want to learn more about Chrome, please visit Google Chrome or Google Chrome Support Forum (English).

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