LightNews
rbyers.net
Rick Byers
@rbyers.net
480 followers 160 following 130 posts
Web Platform engineer at Google on the Chrome team, helping the open web to thrive. Opinions are my own, not my employer's.
Posts Media Videos Starter Packs
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 9d
Yes DMA does require it and we've built a prototype that we can see has some real wins over our WebKit based version. But there are still several reasons why we can't ship a serious blink-based browser in the EU, mostly covered here: open-web-advocacy.org/blog/apples-...
Apple's Browser Engine Ban Persists, Even Under the DMA - Open Web Advocacy
open-web-advocacy.org
1 1 2
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 10d
IMHO they are free to do so as long as users can choose to use a better browser. It's how Netscape took over from IE when Microsoft stopped investing in it.

But on iOS, users have no choice! This then reduces the pressure on Apple to invest in making Safari better on iOS.
1 5
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 10d
And then we would have done a postmortem to reflect on what we learned from the incident and how to prevent similar ones in the future. docs.google.com/presentation...

Instead we just accepted 2 months to even get a 'have a repo?' response on the bug, and 3 months of high crashes for our users.
Regression prevention & mitigation - BlinkOn 19
Rick Byers / Google Video, discussion and discussion notes Regression prevention & Mitigation BlinkOn 19
docs.google.com
1 5
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 10d
Here's another example of a WebKit crash that really hurt Chrome iOS product quality bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi....

As I said on the bug, if this had been blink/Android we would have immediately been doing emergency reverts of any possibly related CL to try to bring the rate down.
282945 – REGRESSION(iOS 18.2 beta): Crash in RemoteScrollingCoordinatorProxyIOS::establishLayerTreeScrollingRelations
bugs.webkit.org
1 3
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 10d
Hmm... Worked OK for me an hour later from the corp network where it failed before.
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 10d
I believe it's fundamentally impossible to ship Chrome on iOS meeting the same high quality bar we have on other platforms when we are forced to rely on WKWebView and very slow and unreliable issue handling.
1 4 21
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 10d
One of my jobs on Chrome is quantifying overall product quality signals. This quarter we're taking a hit on crashes entirely due to iOS, which looks to be primarily due to WebKit and iOS bugs. When I try to check on the status of the current major one (bugs.webkit.org/show_bug.cgi...), I get this:
Unformatted and nearly unreadable bugs.webkit.org webpage with console showing lots of 503 errors.
2 4 23
Reposted by Rick Byers
ericlawrence.com
EricLaw 🎻 @ericlawrence.com · 11d
The Web is the platform you are looking for. Pass it on.
theverge.com
The Verge @theverge.com · 11d
Apple pulls ICEBlock app from the App Store
Apple pulls ICEBlock app from the App Store
ICEBlock reportedly has 1.1 million users.
buff.ly
3 19 77
Reposted by Rick Byers
lea.verou.me
Lea Verou, PhD @lea.verou.me · 21d
Computing some preliminary analysis over the #StateOfHTML pain points data and some …interesting patterns are emerging 🙃
Two Pie charts titled "Complaints about specific browsers" showing about half Safari browser, around a third Firefox, and about a sixth Chrome Two Pie charts titled "Complaints about specific vendors", one titled "All complaints" and the second "Explicitly about interop". The first is showing around 55% Apple, with a tiny sliver of Microsoft and the rest split evenly across Google and Mozilla, whereas the second is 100% Apple. Two Pie charts titled "Mobile vs desktop", one titled "All complaints" and the second "Explicitly about interop". Both are showing about a third desktop and two thirds mobile. Two Pie charts titled "Complaints about specific platforms", one titled "All complaints" and the second "Explicitly about interop". The first is showing around three quarters iOS, around 15% Android, a tiny sliver of Linux, and the rest split evenly across MacOS and Microsoft Windows. The second chart is >80% iOS, with the rest being Android.
6 6 34
Reposted by Rick Byers
marypcbuk.bsky.social
Scary Mary Branscombe @marypcbuk.bsky.social · 13d
A few years ago I started writing about evolving web standards and @rbyers.net suggested I should cover WPT: the web platform tests project that most people working with the web have a vague idea about that has evolved into an engine of interoperability. since then, I've been tracking people down
How a Shared Test Suite Fixed the Web’s Biggest Problems
The story of Web Platform Tests (WPT), the collaborative test suite that transformed the web from an inconsistent platform into a stable one.
thenewstack.io
1 3 13
Reposted by Rick Byers
davidbisset.com
David Bisset @davidbisset.com · 16d
Why I 🧡 the web.

This #WebGL game where you deliver messages on a tiny planet is amazing. Smooth animation. Peaceful vibes (and i didn't even play, I wondered around).

messenger.abeto.co

#JavaScript #chillvibe #game
1 23 73
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 17d
If this study is right, it means telling pregnant mothers with a fever to "tough it out" will likely significantly increase the occurrence of ASD! Guess we're going to do the experiment. 😕
1 2
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 17d
"the fever-associated ASD risk was attenuated among mothers who reported taking antipyretic medications (OR = 1.30, 95 % CI 0.59, 2.84), but remained elevated for those who did not (OR = 2.55, 95 % CI 1.30, 4.99)." 😲
1
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 17d
The question isn't "is Tylenol use in pregnancy associated with autism?", its "does treating fever with Tylenol during pregnancy increase or decrease the risk of autism?". europepmc.org/article/MED/...
Europe PMCEurope PMC
Europe PMC is an archive of life sciences journal literature.
europepmc.org
1
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 23d
When I was on an H1-B working in Redmond 20 years ago my immigration lawyers asked me last minute to cancel a trip for legal reasons. My response: "attending family events is more important to me than living in your country".
5
Reposted by Rick Byers
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 23d
Yup. We're ready at Google Waterloo, we've got a beautiful new building open! Common north!
Rendering of new Google building in Kitchener Ontario
2 4
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · 23d
Yup. We're ready at Google Waterloo, we've got a beautiful new building open! Common north!
Rendering of new Google building in Kitchener Ontario
2 4
Reposted by Rick Byers
pran.sh
Pranshu Khanna @pran.sh · Aug 30
You still have time, The State of HTML 2025 survey is live.

Browser vendors use this data to prioritize features, fix incompatibilities. Standards bodies use it too.

It’s not just a survey, it’s influence.

Take 10 minutes.
Share what you care about. 👇
stateofhtml.com/en-US
1 7 11
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · Aug 17
I always like chatting about these topics and I love your work. But I'll have to check with my PR team. Will DM to coordinate.
1
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · Aug 16
Thanks! Yeah this is a blessing in surprise. As long as my flight home Friday doesn't get cancelled too 😛. I think AC must be most of the flights to/from Canada so there's apparently not a lot of options when they strike!
1
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · Aug 16
Hah, definitely no zoom, no recording. IRL still has its place. 🙂

Maybe if there's some interesting discussion I'll share my takeaways here.

We'll just have to do it again sometime with more planning 🙂.
1 1
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · Aug 16
Sorry to hear it, good luck! If you can get it in Paris I'd suggest a nasal spray like Vicks first defense for the kiddo. It's early but the science is promising and I'm convinced it's saved my family from virus transmission multiple times now.
1 2
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · Aug 16
Indeed. Really enjoying my spontaneous bike ride this morning too!
Water birds in a pond in the bay Me and a gbike on the bay Google and NASA buildings over the bay
1
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · Aug 16
Oh, and of course reducing friction, lag, jank, scams, noise and just generally improving UX quality of the web while also improving interoperability across browsers. Those have been my main focus for most of the past decade. We have made big strides, but not nearly enough IMHO! [5.5/7]
rbyers.net
Rick Byers @rbyers.net · Aug 16
It might end up being just me reflecting to myself while appreciating the exhibits, or just you and me chatting for 10 min, or we might get 100 web enthusiasts and continue on to Sports Page across the street for food and drinks together. Regardless I'm sure it'll be fun! [7/7]
2 2