Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and others join forces to launch new Web standards resource
In an attempt to create the “definitive resource” for all open Web technologies, Apple, Adobe, Facebook, Google, HP, Microsoft, Mozilla, Nokia, and Opera have joined the W3C to launch a new website called ‘Web Platform’
Context & Ripple Effects
The W3C's launch of the Web Platform site, confirmed on October 8, 2012, puts a single vendor-neutral documentation hub behind open web technologies, staffed by a roster that includes every major browser maker — Apple, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Opera — alongside Adobe, Facebook, HP and Nokia. The story travelled unusually wide for a standards announcement: beyond wire-style pickups at CNET, ReadWriteWeb and The Register, it ran on the vendors' own channels, including the Chromium Blog and MSDN Blogs, signaling that each company wanted its developer base to see the commitment firsthand.
First-order effects
- Web developers gain one canonical reference for HTML, CSS and related APIs co-authored by the browser vendors themselves, rather than piecing together Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla's separate documentation portals.
Second-order effects
- Third-party tutorial and reference sites lose their arbitrage on basic web-platform documentation, while Adobe's participation ties its web authoring tools into a standards-body resource its customers already consult.
Third-order effects
- Rival browser makers jointly funding shared platform infrastructure establishes a template for cooperation on the commons while competition stays in the implementations — a structure other standards efforts can copy.
The trend: Browser vendors are treating shared documentation and interoperability infrastructure as a joint investment, shifting the moat from proprietary reference material toward implementation quality.