14 DAY TRIAL // For a medium as fast moving as the Internet, web standards change very slowly, taking years for new ideas to get traction. Moreover, many new concepts fail to achieve any sort of implementation after the initial hype. One standard that could bring significantly improved graphics in some cases but was close to being abandoned, Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), is now seeing a resurgence with support from browser makers and backing from major industry players like Google.
The company is in fact hosting the SVG Open 2009 conference to discuss the future of the standard that began to see some adoption among web programmers. Vector graphics offer much better quality images in certain cases as the nature of the technology allows them to be redrawn at any size without losing any detail. For images like logos or which contain text, they are a much better alternative to the regular formats like JPEG or GIF, widely used today.
Despite its advantages, it has taken years to reach a point where SVG may actually begin to see some traction though it is still some way off from mainstream adoption. Part of the reason why it took so long is that web standards are usually the subject of much debate with experts rarely agreeing on all aspects. "First they're ignored, then they're hyped, then they're written off for dead, then they start getting real work done," Brad Neuberg, a Google engineer, said at the conference referring to web standards.
The other major hurdle is one that web programmers are all too familiar with and it has to do with lack of support from Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Microsoft's reluctance to adopt new web standards has long been a major hindrance and has slowed down progress in certain areas for years. Understandably, web programmers are reluctant to implement a new technology knowing that it won't work on the browser with the biggest market share. Still, the Redmond-based company is actually a sponsor of the SVG Open conference, perhaps a sign that the standard may see support from IE too at some point in the future.