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takyon [soylentnews.org] writes:

Google isn't the company that we should have handed the Web over to [arstechnica.com]

Back in 2009, Google introduced SPDY [arstechnica.com], a proprietary replacement for HTTP that addressed what Google saw as certain performance issues with existing HTTP/1.1. Google wasn't exactly wrong in its assessments, but SPDY was something of a unilateral act, with Google responsible for the design and functionality. SPDY was adopted by other browsers and Web servers over the next few years, and Google's protocol became widespread.

[...] The same story is repeating with HTTP/3. In 2012, Google announced a new experimental protocol, QUIC, intended again to address performance issues with existing HTTP/1.1 and HTTP/2. Google deployed QUIC, and Chrome would use QUIC when communicating with Google properties. Again, QUIC became the basis for IETF's HTTP development, and HTTP/3 [arstechnica.com] uses a derivative of QUIC that's modified from and incompatible with Google's initial work.

It's not just HTTP that Google has repeatedly worked to replace. Google AMP ("Accelerated Mobile Pages") is a cut-down HTML combined with Google-supplied JavaScript designed to make mobile Web content load faster [arstechnica.com]. This year, Google said that it would try to build AMP with Web standards [arstechnica.com] and introduced a new governance model that gave the project much wider industry oversight [wordpress.com].

A person claiming to be a former Microsoft Edge developer has written about a tactic Google supposedly used to harm the competing browser's performance:

A person claiming to be a former Edge developer has today described [ycombinator.com] one such action. For no obvious reason, Google changed YouTube to add a hidden, empty HTML element that overlaid each video. This element disabled Edge's fastest, most efficient hardware accelerated video decoding. It hurt Edge's battery-life performance and took it below Chrome's. The change didn't improve Chrome's performance and didn't appear to serve any real purpose; it just hurt Edge, allowing Google to claim that Chrome's battery life was actually superior to Edge's. Microsoft asked Google if the company could remove the element, to no avail.

The latest version of Edge addresses the YouTube issue and reinstated Edge's performance. But when the company talks of having to do extra work to ensure EdgeHTML is compatible with the Web, this is the kind of thing that Microsoft has been forced to do.

See also: Ex Edge developer blames Google tricks in part for move to Chromium [onmsft.com]

Related: HTTP/2 on its Way In, SPDY on its Way Out [soylentnews.org]
Google Touts QUIC Protocol [soylentnews.org]
Google Attempting to Standardize Features of Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) [soylentnews.org]
Google AMP Can Go To Hell [soylentnews.org]
The Next Version of HTTP Won't be Using TCP [soylentnews.org]
HTTP/3 Explained: A Work in Progress [soylentnews.org]
Microsoft Reportedly Building a Chromium-Based Web Browser to Replace Edge, and "Windows Lite" OS [soylentnews.org]
Mozilla CEO Warns Microsoft's Switch to Chromium Will Give More Control of the Web to Google [soylentnews.org]

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