Is Chrome the New IE? (2023)

Just to (mostly) preempt this because the exact same discussion is had every time this sentiment comes up: Isn't safari the new IE?

Answer: They both are like IE, for different reasons:

Chrome: Pushes proprietary extensions onto the web, which due to their absolute dominance others are somewhat forced to adopt, people develop for it and don't test in any other browser, just like IE

Safari: is coupled to operating system version, lags behind on implementing new features, thus single handedly slowing down when everyone can use new features. Has weird quirks that other browsers don't, just like IE (though not nearly as bad as IE)

So which is like IE? It just depends on what you mean when you say "like IE", the label applies to both because IE was bad for more than one reason

If I understand - Chrome is like IE for pushing proprietary extensions, and Safari is like IE for not implementing those proprietary extensions?

Safari is like IE for not implementing standards everyone else has agreed on and implemented.

Such as?

Here's a breakdown: https://caniuse.com/?compare=chrome+131,safari+18.1&compareC...

So, things that are either impossible (touch events or vibration) or ridiculous (why would I want a website to know my battery level or directly access system hardware?)

I'd guess for the same reason we want native apps to be able to do that.