XML and Browsers

Trapped by the Legacy of HTML

The Web slowed in 1997 The browser wars slowed as Microsoft's dominance began to show. Mozilla's growth has been slow, and Opera, OmniWeb, and others have mostly staked out niches. New features shared across browsers have become rarer and rarer things.
Leaving us with... a toolkit that's not widely updated for XML's potential in any form.
The HTML model has drawbacks A single vocabulary, limited interactivity, reliance on bit-mapped graphic formats, a loosely-defined plug-in model, half-implemented styling that leaves developers using tables and odd graphic hacks for layout... but it works well enough that there's little rush to throw it away.
So developers are largely stuck The Web can't be a driving engine of progress when it isn't progressing. There is hope, as we'll see, but implementation remains a problem.