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Emerging Browser Technologies

Industry heavyweights want to own them, browser developers want to pick and choose among them, and Web application developers just plain want them.

We're talking about standards, of course. Although the road toward universal browser compatibility still stretches as far as the eye can see, a few oases are springing up. Here we look at CSS, DOM, XML and XHTML, which, with the World Wide Web Consortium's oversight and with cooperation among IBM, Microsoft, Sun Microsystems and other companies, will make Web application developers' lives richer by making their tools better. The shift from OS-centric development to the Web-based model hasn't happened overnight and won't be finished by tomorrow, but significant headway has been made, and we expect progress to ramp up over the coming year.

What's driving this move from Windows to Web? The advent of Web services to fuel the B2B and B2C bandwagon (take a look at Microsoft's .Net strategy and Sun's ONE response if you doubt our word); the desire for lightweight, portable applications; and the advent of devices from cell phones to PDAs. Smart CTOs realize their applications aren't just for in-house use anymore -- applications need to be deployed on demand to customers and suppliers as well. Speaking of smart CTOs, we sat down with eRoom Technology CTO and senior vice president Pito Salas to talk about his company's perseverance in the face of wildly incompatible browsers. Tops on his wish list? Standards for disconnected browser operation.