Teams behind Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge unveil a development forum at W3C to standardize and build a unified, more secure foundation for extensions
@googlechrome, @firefox, @MicrosoftEdge, and Safari — have banded together to standardize browser extensions. The goal is a unified and more secure foundation. tip @Techmeme https://www.cnet.com/... Thanks: @stshank
CNETStephen Shankland
Context & Ripple Effects
The browser vendors had already been reducing fragmentation through shared cross-browser documentation, while Microsoft’s earlier Chrome-extension porting effort for Edge exposed the cost of browser-specific extension work. The new W3C forum moves that coordination from migration tools and documentation into the extension platform itself.
Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Edge teams gain a common W3C venue to align extension development and security requirements rather than advancing incompatible implementations independently.
Extension developers get a clearer path toward building against a shared foundation instead of relying on browser-by-browser adaptation.
Second-order effects
Browser vendors face more pressure to differentiate through implementation quality, security, and user experience when extension compatibility becomes less proprietary.
Tools and services built around porting or maintaining separate browser extension versions may see less need for browser-specific work as common standards take hold.
Third-order effects
If the forum produces durable standards, browser competition shifts further away from proprietary web-platform differences and toward the quality of each browser’s execution on common foundations.
The effort reinforces W3C-led coordination as a way for major browser vendors to improve the web platform without requiring developers to choose a single browser ecosystem.
The trend: Major browser vendors are increasingly using shared standards work to reduce web-platform fragmentation while competing on the experiences built above those standards.
Oh, interesting. There's now a WebExtensions 🧩 Community Group, chaired by @DotProto (Google) and @xeenon (Apple). Nice to see collaboration in this field, while leaving each vendor freedom to innovate. https://www.w3.org/...
The fact that web browser extensions will get a standardisation track is great. Because it will include common level of security and privacy. Having experience in development of these, I will also appreciate portability. https://www.w3.org/... https://github.com/... https://twitt…
The new WebExtensions Community Group will try to forge a common architecture for future web extensions, and is inviting developers to join the effort. https://appleinsider.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Now it's official. There's now a WebExtensions Community Group, initiated by Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla, for aligning on a common vision for browser extensions and to work towards future standardization. https://www.w3.org/... Web standards. For extensions.
You know how each browser used to have totally different technologies for making add-ons or extensions. (They weren't even called the same thing.) And how more recently, several browsers totally changed their extensions to use a similar set of APIs as the others? Yeah. That.
@jeffbachtel Reservations? No! I think this is terrific!!! I've watched smart people work for a while to make this happen. It's exciting that we are now at this point. Web standards are fantastic for developers.
This is great news for browser extensions like RECAP. It's not the first time browser manufacturers have tried to work together on extensions, but it's the broadest. Hopefully it'll stick. https://www.w3.org/...
Yes! This is basically what I've been waiting for when people ask about the extensions story for @nteractio. Looking forward to building on web standards. 🥰 https://twitter.com/...
Scoop: The top browser teams — @googlechrome, @firefox, @MicrosoftEdge, and Safari — have banded together to standardize browser extensions. The goal is a unified and more secure foundation. tip @Techmeme https://www.cnet.com/...