Try text scaling support in Chrome Canary - Josh Tumath
There’s a new meta tag on the block. This time it’s for allowing system-level text sizing to apply to your website.
A (kind of) farewell to the web – Web Directions
We’ve arrived at an industrialised process, one that’s like an assembly line for applications. Frameworks like React have become the machinery of that assembly line. They enable us to build efficiently, to build at scale, to build predictably. But they also constrain what we build.
But what aren’t we building? What new kinds of experiences, what new kinds of applications, what new kinds of interaction could we create if we were deeply exploring and engaging with the capabilities of the platform? I don’t know, because we’re not building them. We’re building what the frameworks enable us to build, what the assembly line can produce efficiently.
Collectively, as an industry and as a profession, consciously or not, we’ve chosen this maxima that we’re stuck on. We can build what React or Vue or Next or name your framework/library enables us to do.
I share John’s despair at this situation, but I don’t share his belief that large language models will save us.
Related links
I’m speaking at Web Day Out 2026 - Manuel Matuzovic
The core idea of the event is to get you up to speed on the most powerful web platform features that you can use right now. I love that because it aligns perfectly with what I’ve been working on over the last couple of years: finding ways to break old habits to get the most out of CSS.
Web Backstories: Shadow DOM | Igalia
Eric Meyer and Brian Kardell chat with Jay Hoffmann and Jeremy Keith about Shadow DOM’s backstory and long origins
I enjoyed this chat, and it wasn’t just about Shadow DOM; it was about the history of chasing the dream of encapsulation on the web.
V7: Video Killed the Web Browser Star | Rob Weychert
Grrr… it turns out that browsers exhibit some very frustrating behaviour when it comes to the video element. Rob has the details…
The present and potential future of progressive image rendering - JakeArchibald.com
When I set about writing this article, I intended it to be a strong argument for progressive rendering. But after digging into it, my feelings are less certain.
Related posts
Installing web apps
Here’s an HTML web component you can use if you’re participating in the origin trial for the Web Install API.
Manuel Matuzovič is speaking at Web Day Out
The line-up is now complete and you don’t want to miss this!
Jake Archibald is speaking at Web Day Out
The sixth speaker is revealed—only two more to go!
Simplify
Reminding myself just how much you can do with CSS these days.
The web on mobile
Technically, websites can do just about anything that native apps can do. And yet the actual experience of using the web on mobile is worse than ever.