Apple teams up with Google, Mozilla, Microsoft to improve browser interoperability

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The group are working on a new benchmark dubbed Interop 2022, which will "improve the experience of developing for the web in 15 key areas." Along with the browser makers, software consultant groups Bocoup and Igalia are also on board.

All four of the browser makers have agreed to focus on the 15 areas, which will include cascade layers, color spaces and CSS color functions, new viewport units, scrolling, and more. The project will focus on the four browsers involved: Safari, Chrome, Edge, and Firefox.

"For the first time ever, all major browser vendors, and other stakeholders, have come together to solve the top browsers compatibility issues identified by web developers," the group said in a blog post.

The end goal is to make web applications look and function similarly on different web browsers, which isn't the case currently. The goals are also all design-focused, meaning that browsers have an incentive to participate alongside their rivals.

"All of these technologies are important to Apple and to everyone working on WebKit. We care deeply about the health of the web, and interoperable implementations of web standards," Apple said in a statement. "We welcome collaboration with our colleagues in the many web standards organizations, and in Interop 2022 to make the web as interoperable as it can be."

This isn't the first time that browser makers have teamed up on a similar effort. Back in 2021, they also partnered on a project called Combat 2021, which "made great progress." However, the Interop 2022 blog posts noted that were was "still room for improvement."