A significant part of the problem is the W3C making the standards relevant to web browsers and servers so complicated that the purported objective of allowing anyone to build a browser is defeated. While it is technically true that anyone can build a conformant browser, it is practically impossible for anyone without the resources of companies like Google, Apple and Microsoft to keep up. New, independent implementations are almost impossible due to the technical complexity and the anti-competitive practices of the incumbents.

According to this report:

As of 2026, three engines account for virtually all browser rendering globally.

Those are: Blink, WebKit and Gecko

What's needed is new standards that restore the practical possibility for others to develop a compatible browser. That would help resolve or avoid this problem and many other problems that are similarly rooted in vendors attempting to control the user's data and experience.

WEB BROWSER COMPARISON REPORT - Maxthon | Privacy Private Browser

WEB BROWSERCOMPARISON REPORTA Comprehensive Analysis of the Modern Browser LandscapeChrome | Safari | Edge | Firefox | Brave | OperaEdition: 2025–2026 | Reference Date: February 2026Originally benchmarked against data from 2014; fully updated with cu…

^{chung chinyi (Maxthon | Privacy Private Browser)}

Those are: Blink, WebKit and Gecko

Ladybird enters the chat

confirming that it is too difficult

That statement bumps with the reality that is being built.

It shouldn't take a decade to write a conformant browser.

I agree.

A simpler specification would allow more projects to deliver compliant browsers.

Also agree.

Saying it was "started in 2019" without mentioning SerenityOS and the single person that was writing it all at the time is a bit disingenuous. It was just a single component within an entire OS that was also being written from the ground up (also entirely by one person). It was in 2022 that it was spun out into its own project because of the community interest in it.