And, let's be clear, Google's ability to enact change is a result of their pervasive influence over the internet.
It took _years_ for XMLHTTPRequest to become a dominant influence on site design. Google can push new standard changes in fraction of the time because _their services demand it_.
> Even webapps, which are more sensitive to browser environments due to their heavy use of JS, should not stop working on an older browser just because a newer version appeared
10? This was a problem even before 2001, which is when Internet Explorer 6 was released which (unfortunately) quickly became the Internet. Things weren't so multi-platform back then so swaths of the Internet became inaccessible unless you were using IE6 on Windows. Things are a bit different these days with smartphones and Apple's viability, but the landscape is starting to look strangely familiar.
It took _years_ for XMLHTTPRequest to become a dominant influence on site design. Google can push new standard changes in fraction of the time because _their services demand it_.
> Even webapps, which are more sensitive to browser environments due to their heavy use of JS, should not stop working on an older browser just because a newer version appeared
Those are vendor-bound apps.
They're Google Chrome Apps, not web apps.