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Web Browsers of Tomorrow

Web development is changing dramatically, and the browser vendors have to be ready for the next generation. The lead guys for both IE and Mozilla share their views on making the Internet trustworthy, standards-compatible and innovative. All three at once? That's the tough part.

By Esther Schindler

November 29, 2007 — CIO — Throughout this series of articles, we've examined the developer toolmakers' predictions about the next generation of application development. What do the browser makers say about their readiness for the future of Web development? Here's how Microsoft's Dean Hachamovitch, general manager of Internet Explorer, and Mike Schroepfer, Mozilla's VP of engineering, responded to the key issues our experts raised.

What about Apple's Safari? According to an Apple PR representative, "Apple does not comment on future products or product plans," so we have no visionary willing to go on the record. However, Apple's Safari browser is based on WebKit, an open-source Web browser engine, which is also the engine used by Dashboard, Mail and other OS X applications. WebKit's HTML and JavaScript code began as a branch of the KHTML and KJS libraries from KDE. Recent features added to WebKit, which "will likely make it to an official release someday," include Web fonts, client-side database storage, CSS transforms and CSS animation. They aren't standing still; they just aren't talking.

First, don't assume that the browser will be replaced by another technology. "The browser is not going to disappear from the landscape anytime soon," says Hachamovitch. Moving the browser forward is the IE team's core challenge.

But browser technology needs to evolve. "The browser as document renderer is long gone," says Schroepfer. Browsers, he says, are well understood for documents, but not well understood for more dynamic applications. On the positive side, you can make an online application do just what you want, "even if that isn't the right thing for 130 million people."

The Balancing Act

The browser vendors have a tough row to hoe: "We have to be compatible with the past and compatible with the future," says Hachamovitch. For IE development, he says, "The central challenge I see is how we enable great interoperability and security and performance—because those things are often in conflict." If the browser vendors aren't careful, he points out, new features can destroy compatibility.

For browser developers, the notion of "trustworthy" is incredibly important. Not just security, suggests Hachamovitch, but larger issues such as coping with security certificates. With Internet Explorer 7, for example, 900,000 phishing attempts are blocked every week. "I'm putting compatibility and interoperability at the top of the list," says Hachamovitch. "Trust is right behind it."

 

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