Yesterday I wrote a post on Why Safari May Become the Browser of Choice and got some great feedback (both positive and negative) in the comments and several emails. I thought I'd take this opportunity to address this feedback and explain a little bit more about why I believe these new "features" in WebKit are so important to the future of web development and design.
First off, let me set the record straight and tell you that I am an unqualified supporter of Microsoft technologies such as SQL Server, BizTalk Server, Commerce Server and the .NET Framework. I'm also a Microsoft MVP for Commerce Server and an avid C#, ASP.NET and BizTalk developer. In my day job, I use these Microsoft technologies to create business-to-business e-commerce applications for the company that I work for.
But at night and on the weekends, I moonlight as a free-lance web designer/developer using mostly non-Microsoft technologies such as Ajax, PHP & mySQL. In both areas I strive to create "standards" based web sites and applications and my overriding goal is always to "create the best user experience requiring the least bandwidth" and this is where WebKit comes in.
Think about how we (ASP.NET) developers create great user experiences today and two things come to mind; ASP.NET AJAX and Silverlight. Both technologies allow you to create really great user experiences on the web but only at the cost of bandwidth (download time, initial or otherwise). The same rule holds true for Flash and any Ajax library such as Prototype, script.aculo.us or jQuery (all of which are excellent Javascript frameworks).
Now think about our potential to create great user experiences using nothing more than the new HTML5 and CSS3 capabilities found in the latest WebKit builds. Gradients, shadows and rounded-corners without images, transforms and animation without Javascript, client-side data that goes way beyond cookies and support for highly compressible vector graphics (SVG). All in a fully "standards" based HTML/XHTML/CSS framework that (hopefully) renders the same in all browsers, both desktop and mobile.
Now we're talking about actually having the tools to "create the best possible user experience requiring the least bandwidth". This may be a pipe dream but it looks like the WebKit folks and I are drinking the same Kool-Aid at the moment!
Currently listening to: "Still Feels Good" by Rascal Flatts