The Modern Web

Introduction

We are in a time of unprecedented innovation on the Web. Not too long ago, one company, Microsoft, dominated the web landscape; in 2003, Internet Explorer was used on some 95 percent of computers worldwide. This domination brought the advantage of a stable market for developers, but there was also a serious drawback: Microsoft chose to end nonessential work on IE, and innovation on the Web stagnated—a consequence of a lack of competition and a closed environment.

Things could not be more different now. There are some four or five key browser vendors, about the same number of major operating systems, and more parties are getting ...