tedster - 9:16 am on Feb 15, 2001 (gmt 0)

I hope the next few years will see astounding evolution in the art and science of the browser. The main forces behind this should be the maturing of the online population and the advent of XHTML.

1) As the novelty of being online wears off, people gravitate more and more to what WORKS, before they worry about razzle dazzle, like matching the color of their GUI to their room's decor. When technologies mature, people demand high functioning and the companies that provide it have come to the fore.

2) As more websites look to use the extended functionality of XHTML, browsers can focus more on doing a great job rendering valid code and not worry about forgiving bad code. This will free them to be more efficient and effective.

This shift will take a few years -- a long time on the web, but really, not so very long at all. The question in my mind is which browser will see this direction first, and commit to it whole heartedly.

Before AOL bought Netscape, I might have said Netscape -- after all they were willing to wait nearly two years to release a new browser version, just to pursue standards. But AOL has a record of almost disdain for high technical functioning, so I'm not sure where Navigator will be headed. Maybe their alliance with Sun Microsystems can make the difference.

As many have noted, MicroSoft still seems to care more about market domination than really serving their customers. They seem to consider us all their potential captives, so I'm not sure that they will take their browser in a sound direction unless market pressures force their hand. Please.

Opera seems to have their heart and their head in the right place. They're paying attention to emerging Internet markets. But do they have the resources? That's the hurdle I see them facing. They are building some great alliances, -- Eudora and AMD are great buddies to have. But TimeWarner/AOL/Netscape/Sun or Microsoft and their partners/prisoners have some very deep pockets.

Could someone else come from nowhere? I guess it's possible, but this is no longer the early days of the web.

Could all of this be the fantasy of a frustrated web developer -- you bet. I really want Microsoft to either 1) wise up or 2) take a big hit.

Most of all, I want to be able to write correct code, once, and not have to struggle with a host of browser idiosyncracies.