Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla join forces to make browsers better

Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla Foundation announced a joint effort to improve browser interoperability to ensure Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox provide the same reliable and consistent web experience.

A post on web.dev details how the four companies, alongside other contributors, will work on a new interoperability benchmark for modern browsers called Interop 2022. The ultimate goal is to reduce “pain points” for developers and help them focus on building their web experiences instead of working around various inconsistencies in browsers.

Interop 2022 is a benchmark that focuses on 15 different areas of modern browsers. Those areas often cause headaches for web developers due to platform differences. Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mozilla, Bocoup, and Igalia agreed to ensure browsers behave the same in those areas. They include cascade layers, color spaces, CSS color functions, viewport units, scrolling, form controls, etc. Some of the focus points are derived from Compat 2021, another joint effort Google announced in late 2021 to improve compatibility across the most popular browser.

Developers and users can track how Chrome, Edge, Safari, and Firefox progress in the 15 areas on the Interop 2022 dashboard. The page shows scores for stable and experimental versions of each browser (Chrome and Edge Dev, Firefox Nightly, and Safari Tech Preview) and explains how the benchmark calculates scores.

Interop 2022 is a multi-year project to ensure every browser can provide the same experience for developers and users. It is a welcomed change in the world where Google Chrome dominates the browser market, and alternatives lag behind due to numerous compatibility issues.

According to the latest data from Statcounter, Google Chrome holds an immense 64.92% share in the desktop browser market. Perhaps, Interop 2022 will help other players to improve their products and catch up with Google.

Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Mozilla join forces to make browsers better