Interoperability is one of the major issues for web developers. Currently due to their incompatibility, Internet applications can not be identical in terms of functions and design across all browsers. To address this, Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Mozilla announced the creation of Interop 2022, a benchmark tool created together to improve web browser interoperability.

A web benchmark by the main browsers

If each of their products has its own characteristics, it is important that they all support the same web standards so that sites are displayed correctly and services work perfectly whatever the editor behind the browser. To the great regret of developers, this is not the case at present. They have to deal with the inconsistencies between each product and try to adapt to them. Given the crucial and critical nature of interoperability, the major players have collaborated to create Intertop 2022, a project that aims to launch new standards in this area.

Apple, Microsoft, Mozilla, and Google, supported by Bocoup and Igalia, have collaborated to improve interoperability in 15 key areas that developers have identified as problematic or missing. The goal is to make web design technologies more consistent across platforms and eliminate differences between them. This new benchmark will be used to evaluate how the predefined list of standards is used by different vendors, both in their stable and experimental browsers.

 

Removing inconsistencies between browsers

To take one example, the stable version of Safari lags behind Chrome, Edge, and Firefox, while Safari’s Technology Preview is on par with its competitors. The score was generated from automated tests that evaluate performance and support for 15 predefined criteria, including scrolling, forms, encoding, typography, different types of CSS, color spaces, display units, and overall web compatibility. The dashboard is available to the general public and will always be updated to assess everyone’s progress.