The Evolution of the Web

September 4, 2011 3:00 PM

"The web today is a growing universe of interlinked web pages and web apps, teeming with videos, photos, and interactive content. What the average user doesn't see is the interplay of web technologies and browsers that makes all this possible. The color bands in this visualization represent the interaction between web technologies and browsers, which brings to life the many powerful web apps that we use daily." By Hyperakt for Chrome's 3rd birthday.
posted by chavenet (29 comments total)

Where's Lynx?
posted by sammyo at 3:08 PM on September 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

Or Seamonkey (I see the way this is going).
posted by johnny novak at 3:11 PM on September 4, 2011

why does the javascript trail just go up to Opera at the end, while the HTML5 trail goes to all browsers at the end?
posted by memebake at 3:19 PM on September 4, 2011

Why are lines different widths? What does the snakey up and downness mean? What the hell does this visualization mean? Sure looks pretty, but pretty crap at conveying information.
posted by aspo at 3:24 PM on September 4, 2011 [12 favorites]

Yeah my team and I have been trying to understand if the trajectory of the wiggly coloured lines actually mean anything or if they're just meant to be pretty. At first blush they seemed to make some sense (interplay of technologies and browsers) but upon closer inspection, they don't seem overly meaningful. Any insights?
posted by sharpener at 3:25 PM on September 4, 2011

Or what aspo said.
posted by sharpener at 3:25 PM on September 4, 2011

Exactly how do the color bands "represent the interaction between web technologies and browsers, which brings to life the many powerful web apps that we use daily"?

Also the info is pretty suspect - for example they seem to have AJAX starting in 1999, and I'm no expert, but even though most of the underlying stuff was around in 1999, AJAX wasn't a term I ever heard until 2006ish. And didn't Java predate Javascript?
posted by johnny novak at 3:33 PM on September 4, 2011

Indeed it is pretty but I was not sure how the information was derived and I am not sure what the lines mean numerically beyond showing an increasing trend. I enjoy showing the interface changes between various versions. I guess I was looking for a table, you know, of data and the informatics being less shallow with greater context. Now, I do understand , that there maybe a lot of data and that one needs to focus on certain aspects otherwise it is a jumble but in this I feel that there is missing context and information.
posted by jadepearl at 3:41 PM on September 4, 2011

I don't get why Netscape 2 and 3 are skipped while later point releases are include (6.1, 6.2, 7.1). I don't even remember Netscape after 4 since IE was dominant at that point.
posted by Harpocrates at 3:50 PM on September 4, 2011

I thought the graph looked neat.
posted by Trurl at 3:52 PM on September 4, 2011

AJAX wasn't a term I ever heard until 2006ish.

Gmail was using AJAX-the-technology, if not AJAX-the-terminology, from the get-go, wasn't it? and it started in, what, 2004 or so?
posted by kenko at 4:01 PM on September 4, 2011

(Musta been 2004 because I had a gmail account when I was still in college.)
posted by kenko at 4:01 PM on September 4, 2011

I always thought Outlook Web Access (OWA) was what first ushered in AJAX, tho AFAIK Microsoft used different terms to describe it.
posted by slater at 4:22 PM on September 4, 2011

There ya go:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Outlook_Web_App#Technology
posted by slater at 4:23 PM on September 4, 2011

I assumed the wiggly lines went 'through' the browser lines when the browsers adopted that technology, but looking closer (eg the javascript line) that doesn't seem to hold up.
posted by memebake at 4:53 PM on September 4, 2011

They missed the part about the invention of the time machine that makes the backwards curves make any kind of sense.

Or maybe that's in the bottom bit of the graph that I can't see because the interface doesn't scroll downwards.
posted by Sys Rq at 4:54 PM on September 4, 2011

Tsk tsk. That was a picture-perfect representation of chart junk. Tufte would probably be upset.
posted by Blazecock Pileon at 4:56 PM on September 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Is it ironic that this page breaks the back button?
posted by DU at 5:01 PM on September 4, 2011

All I want is a browser for OSX that can handle flash without cooking the CPU. Or for OSX to handle it better. Or whatever the fuck is wrong with flash on a mac, that's what I want fixed.
posted by Rumple at 5:09 PM on September 4, 2011

Lord...That graph is exactly what happens when you've have very little to say and Creative Suite to say it with.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:18 PM on September 4, 2011 [3 favorites]

Why are lines different widths? What does the snakey up and downness mean? What the hell does this visualization mean? Sure looks pretty, but pretty crap at conveying information.

Beyond this there be draggin'
posted by hal9k at 5:45 PM on September 4, 2011 [2 favorites]

"In 1999, Microsoft created the XMLHTTP ActiveX control in Internet Explorer 5, which was later adopted by Mozilla, Safari, Opera and other browsers as the XMLHttpRequest JavaScript object. [...] The term Ajax was coined on February 18, 2005 by Jesse James Garrett..." - Wikipedia.

I remember in 2005 telling a client that I thought we should implement the UI they wanted with this new method I'd seen using JavaScript to post updates without page refreshes. Their tech team said JS was a toy language that anybody with any sense disabled.

Literally a week later that Garrett article came out and the client asked if we could use "Ajax" instead.
posted by nev at 5:56 PM on September 4, 2011 [6 favorites]

Just so's y'all will know, a browser should not be a computing platform. And since the Lord gave us NoScript, IT AIN'T!
posted by jfuller at 7:20 PM on September 4, 2011 [1 favorite]

Lord...That graph is exactly what happens when you've have very little to say and Creative Suite to say it with.

Yeah, the Y axis here seems to be totally meaningless. And is it supposed to show HTML5 'taking over' from older technologies?
posted by delmoi at 7:55 PM on September 4, 2011

It is supposed to show the massive proliferation of available "Web technologies" that have blossomed since the release of Chrome. Isn't it?
posted by Windopaene at 9:52 PM on September 4, 2011

This infographic experience is optimized for Internet Explorer 9+, Firefox 4+, Safari 4+, Chrome 10+,
Opera 11+ or newer. As a result some parts of this infographic may not load correctly in your browser.

Well, there you are then...
posted by BungaDunga at 12:03 AM on September 5, 2011

Geez, tough crowd.

The graph is implemented in SVG with Raphaël. I think it's pretty neat, myself, although it's definitely from the "look cool" school of visualiation.

AJAX is dated to 1999 because that's when XMLHttpRequest was implemented. It's an interesting fact that it took another 5 years before its capabilities were recognized and widely used.
posted by Nelson at 7:49 AM on September 5, 2011

Not just Hyperakt! My friends at Vizzuality had a hand in this too. I think it looks cool. As you were, people.
posted by tmcw at 8:54 PM on September 5, 2011

The web is awash with these pointless, shoddy infographics, and I don't care if it uses SVG, or even AJAX (whenever that was invented). This remains a big, pointless advert for the biggest single advertising business in the world. Now, get off my lawn.
posted by johnny novak at 9:59 PM on September 5, 2011