The State Of The Web

What can the web's chaotic past of browser wars and clever hacks teach us about its future?

#1about 6 minutes

Gaining perspective from the Apollo 8 Earthrise photograph

The 1968 Apollo 8 mission's Earthrise photo provided a powerful sense of perspective that can be applied to understanding the web.

#2about 4 minutes

The origins of the web from hypertext and the internet

The World Wide Web was created by combining the concept of hypertext, envisioned by Vannevar Bush and Ted Nelson, with the infrastructure of the internet.

#3about 6 minutes

The evolution of color and typography on the web

Web design capabilities grew from limited web-safe colors and system fonts to modern color spaces and powerful variable fonts.

#4about 5 minutes

How media evolved from bitmap images to native video

The web progressed from simple bitmap images to vector graphics with SVG and native audio and video elements, often following innovations pioneered by Flash.

#5about 5 minutes

The long journey to modern CSS layout and responsive design

Web layout moved from hacks like tables and floats to a mature system of responsive design powered by Flexbox and CSS Grid.

#6about 5 minutes

JavaScript's journey from browser wars to native APIs

JavaScript evolved from incompatible DHTML implementations to a standardized language where libraries like jQuery paved the way for powerful native browser APIs.

#7about 4 minutes

The web's biggest challenges are now non-technical

The primary problems on the web today are not technological limitations but user-hostile business models like behavioral advertising and invasive tracking.

#8about 5 minutes

Prioritizing user needs over developer convenience

Adopting complex architectures like single-page apps often prioritizes developer convenience over user experience, leading to poor performance and unnecessary complexity.

#9about 3 minutes

A call to action to defend and improve the web

Developers have a collective responsibility to defend the web by building fast, accessible, and respectful experiences that change user expectations for the better.