Yehuda Katz and I recently asked this question on Twitter.
We're very interested in seeing web browsers advance and implement the interests of web developers.
We got a great response (230+ responses). After a triage of the responses, we narrowed down things to a hitlist that jumped out as having no immediate solution and would be great for the platform:
flash capturing keyboard events, cursor
WYSIWYG form element
inset text shadow
css blend modes
usecase: image i want to tint on hover
Why CORS requires a preflight with cookies disabled
being able to verify the content sent was the content delivered. Probably via headers & apis useful when deploying for mobile/roaming use or in corporate networks when behind proxies.
Text Flow or caret(Position/Range)FromPoint
A unified and publicized set of selectors for styling the shadow dom of input/select/etc. elements
a way to manipulate asset request urls with js on the client before they go out (for serving responsive imgs, etc).
or media query attributes on image tags
UIKit for Javascript.
Native UI bindings to JS that remove overhead and layers of HTML+DOM in the way. Sony's Trilithium did this by binding HW accelerated scene graph, ala Core Animation. see also playstation webapp
render a DOM element to canvas, webgl
DirectWrite in all browsers on all platforms.
simulate keyboard and CLICK events
a base tag for CSS
Filesystem API limitation: IDE cant save files back to disk in original location
XHR2
fragment.innerHTML
There are a lot more where that came from. A few people wanted to see all the responses… So.. here you are. :)
Right now they are partially categorized. I'd love your help with that..
Thank you SO much to rworth and evan, who organized this list. Awesome :)
Broad and Sweeping
a fundamental rethinking of the DOM would be a good start. ~blrandel
Get rid of HTML. Make web JavaScript/CSS driven. ~nextinterfaces
the standards process ~sethladd
Browsers suck. Give us a VM that lets us not care about the browser. ~rxgx
the “feature” that allows browsers to render bad/poorly formed HTML. I want that fixed please. ~durple
In a perfect world I’d say ditch the DOM and give me a real displaylist-style interface, with a consistent composite architecture. ~awebneck
consistent implementation of standards across browsers. ~BrettBearce
performance ~mislav
Should be ilegal to release a browser that doesn’t accomplish all the w3c standards ~FedePaterno
web page cloud pre render. Then pipe one asset to the browser. :-) ~halfcube
create something that makes ads suck less and do not blocking my page ~jaydson
Just Everything, all of it, and then some
all HTML5 features supported by all browsers. ~chrisreister
full html5/css3 support cross browser and signed off specs! #inaperfectworld ~Japhex
Better support for html5 and css3 (all browsers and platforms) = less hacks, less vendor prefixes, less js = happier life :) ~rodrigonoales
IE & Mixed Browser Support
Can I say “IE”? Or is that joke too overdone already? ~coreyschram
as usual, IE is holding everything up. I’d like wide support for SVG today. ~nathan_vaughn
other browsers to keep up the speed of Chrome’s implementation of standards and to auto-update to latest version ~illyriad
force update IE. ~Fallion
An alternative to animated gifs (apng)! FOR GOD’S SAKE!! ~TechBobOmb
fast upgrade cycle for IE comparable to Chrome’s excellent model, and the dropping of compatibility modes going forwards ~ffub
Add support for data:image/png;base64, … to IE6/7. ~ndorfin
sorry, release schedule != update strategy; the latter is what I meant to say. Resubmitting… ~jswartwood
IE’s update strategy. Most important feature to add to the Web is an ability to use feature X in reasonable time. ~jswartwood
how many people answered with IE? ~omarqureshi
Legacy Internet Explorers. Patch them all to autoupdate to IE9+ or a third party engine. ~joegaffey
i’d fix the ‘Microsoft having a browser’ bug ~shanecarmody
oh yeah ie7,8,9 ~negrond
ie6 ~negrond
Advanced CSS3 selectors in IE7 and 8. If I had to choose one it would be nth-child. ~Chris_Krammer
if I had the chance to fix one it would be to get rid of IE. :) ~markbates
IE ~samullen
One browser bug? It’s the one people refer to as “Internet Explorer.” It’s a notorious bug. Evil bug. ~rerouse
the IE self destruct button! ~jeremywoertink
the complete removal of ie 6 and upgrade of everybody to modern browsers ~Mark_Kellett
IE6-8 ~manufaktor
am I allowed to classify everything < IE 10 as a bug? ~chrisdarroch
Can the bug be ie? ~bbommarito
legacy browsers! And all browsers which don’t auto update ~stefanpenner
And of course a forceful auto-update of all IE installations to version 9 :) ~craigpatik
frequent & transparent update for all browsers like Chrome, more coherence on supported features across browsers ~xeppelin
the one browser bug would be to eliminate all versions of IE. ~stash_tray
Internet Explorer. ‘nuff said. ~aviraldg
Auto upgrade for every browser. ~ojohnnyo
regular silent automatic delta updates. ~simbolo
Bug fix: Android browser. ~kylebarrow
automatic Chrome-like updates (along with actual updates) for IE…? #nevergonnahappen ~alexrussell101
Does killing all IE below 8 count? ;) ~ryanolson
I’d add a feature to Chrome that “accidentally” detects IE as a virus and deletes it from the user’s machine. ~wmbenedetto
chrome! ~JomGapuz
That’s easy … it’s called Internet Explorer #abug ~trymbill
An easier way to communicate with databases? and microsoft deprecate IE6 & 7. ~Tsouloftas
Internet Explorer retroactively updating itself ~MyHeroDevon
automatic updates for all browsers (ie like chrome). rate of innovation would skyrocket ~smartalec43
a browser on Android that auto-updates ~boblet
Browser bug to fix? I’d say, make every browser with out-of-date rendering instantly bitch-slap the user until they upgrade. ~J6M8
to that end, mobile web browsers have terrible documentation on what features they support/don’t support. ~bcardarella
Silent auto updates for IE. If only there were a way to cut that half life… #webdeveloperheaven ~josiahsprague
I suppose IE is the main reason For not improving my websites. ~gerherz
Desktop, the bug I’d like fixed is “IE” ~ljharb
Crossbrowsing for christ sick! I wish I can see one day all browsers rendering the sites in the exactly same way once for all! ~FedePaterno
I would fix IE6 so it would automatically crash itself as soon as anyone decided to open it. ~adamholwerda
Can Internet Explorer be considered a bug or feature I’d like to improve… aka eliminate? ~JtheBruce
Android is woefully behind desktop Chrome. ~andybastable
“the one browser bug” = Android. ~danmux
Decent HW rendering in Android please ~danmux
Authentication / Identity / Crypto
identity. I hate having to create a username and password. ~sethladd
Integrated browser authentication. When’s the last time you logged in to a native app? ~madeofcode
Identity, in a way that’s comprehensible and controllable by the user. ~johnjoseph
And w3.org/2011/identity-… will be a great advance too ~cbullokles
I wish I didn’t have to handle identity and SSL. Let my users sign in with existing credentials, and an assurance of encryption. ~abackstrom
a full crypto & authentication stack ~jarrednicholls
Add SSL over HTTP (instead of HTTP over SSL) to handle Certificate-based authentication in the application instead of the web server ~genezys
secure storage for things like OAuth keys (no more proxies needed) ~manuel
Browser Testing
A better way to test across browsers and browser versions. ~jacelevine
Development tools
Better memory debugging tools. Like YourKit for JavaScript ~sethladd
i’d say a built-in vim-style code editor w/ git hooks. maybe… ~csanz
saving changes (js,html,css) made thru google chrome dev tool/firebug directly back into the codebase would be cool. ~4mo1
an ssh client integrated into google chrome ~travisglines
ability to debug CoffeeScript in the browser would have high impact (ideally with IDE/editor integration during debugging) ~ltackmann
Merge firebug’s realtime CSS editor with chrome developer tools ~danielcgold
combine the IDE and the browser. ~jwaltonmedia
Summary of my position — improved native development experience over features that I haven’t imagined yet :) ~justinfrench
I’ve been making use of the 3D CSS3 box model inspector in Dev Tools for a heavy interactive site. Godsend. Thank you dude ~joecritchley
a better developer tools for IE, remote debugging for iPad ~mohsen__
something that will fill in a form while I’m testing client side validation, checkout, etc. ~jwaltonmedia
UIKit for JavaScript. ~sandofsky
And a built-in bandwidth throttler / slow-mo mode. ~kpk
Languages
I want a new client language. I’d love to see browsers switch to bytecode that we can compile other languages down to. ~michael_tomer
Browsers that can be scripted in languages other than Javascript. (I know, Native Client is attempting this). ~suranyami
The “Browser VM” should allow us to have multiple language implementations. An expressive bytecode, not minimized JavaScript. ~twcrone
a VM one layer below JS (ex, LLVM).. to allow us to start innovating languages that run in the browser. JS is not the end all. ~igrigorik
JavaScript always, everywhere. Whatever extra security browsers need to release, so devs can rely on JS always being there. ~webandy
the lack of multiple mature programming language inside the browser environment. ~trek
Ruby as a scripting language ~elado
Sass and Coffeescript built into a browser ~anthonyshort
Language Features
a way to know if a JavaScript function is actually meant to return something even if this return value is ‘undefined’. ~_sebastienp
would love if all browsers supported noSuchMethod for some elegant script solutions. ~KaptajnKold
If we could actually use some of the new Javascript features… ~nicobrevin
Garbage collection. ~jayarjo
operator overloading in #js would ease peoples’ lives when working on gfx stuff ~philogb
Actually fixing altering any built in object’s .prototype in general doesn’t do horrible things, notably DOM objects. ~Rory_O
Fixing Object.prototype erik.eae.net/archives/2005/… ~Rory_O
Support for Javascript versions > 1.5 in Chrome and Safari. Specifically: I want to use generators and iterators. ~jonemo
decoupling JS parsing from load ~derSchepp
Media
Have the ability to pause/mute all media in all other tabs. ex: Mute google music/pandora tab when I hit play on a youtube vid. ~JoeSloth
a solid audio api especially on mobile browsers would be great. Esp. for gaming :) ~wemakedotcoms
Easily HTML5 Video and Audio at the moment. ~webfella
audio and video input and encoding. ~dshaw
more audio/video codecs built in ~masterkain
i’ll go with html5 audio and video also… ~rguarilha
also being able to know how many simultaneous HTML5 Audio objects you support in the current platform would be great. ~Fokker680
If talking about Chrome, video masking with overflow hidden. ~gerherz
the state of video delivery in and across the browsers is still quite sad. but not an individual browser issue per se. ~jerememonteau
Good audio support for mobile browsers. ~andybastable
HTML5 Forms
universal support for styleable input types (date/time/range/etc) ~franksvalli
A rock solid native WYSIWYG form element. With so much content dev being done online, this is an area that seems really behind. ~reinink
file uploads need rethinking. ~sikander
DOM
a “Create” event launched when a new dom node is inserted ~JohnHackworth
Quietly fail and move on when calling a method on a non-existent object : doc.getElementById(“does-not-exist”).innerHTML = … ~craigpatik
Keyboard
Consistent handling of keypress/keydown events across browsers and OSes would be killer. ~pyrolupus
Mouse / Touch
gesture events like swipes and flicks built-in as DOM events ~manuel
doing touch without listening to three events for each gesture ~mohsen__
now that comes from a cat avatar: an element that catches the mouse would be awesome for games or panorama viewer ~Flexi23
Device input
Media Capture API! 21st century, and we are still limited to the text-only input on the web! ~matas_petrikas
Access to the FS, to the devices (camera, sensors, readers, scaners…), direct access to the GPU (3D and complex calculations) ~gandazgul
Device APIs. Accelerometer, camera, contacts, etc. ~filmaj
Access to device capabilities from a website. gps, gyro,etc. ~ivanmarcin
it will never happen, but support for more native functionality like file system, camera, etc… on mobile ~bcardarella
Safe, sandboxed way to communicate with user’s hardware (GPU, filesystem, camera, etc.)—but that’s already on the way. ~valueof
<input type="voice"> and <input type="webcam"> ~TimoKissing
oh, also, device access! shouldn’t need flash to get to the camera and mic. ~jerememonteau
device api, the use cases increases significantly on mobile . ~vivianli
w3.org/2009/dap/ ~jamespearce
Device APIs. ~jamespearce
Mobile, file inputs = camera access ~ljharb
Flash
Inconsistent keyboard trap issues, often by Flash content. Causes accessibility issues and annoys me no end – when in a YouTube video in Firefox, ctrl+t\ctrl+w no longer work for closing\creating tabs, and focus gets stuck in player ~joechidzik
CSS
Ah, forgot something veeeery important: @viewport! ~derSchepp
if CSS could do math. Ex) height: 100% – 20px; ~justindross
I’d like css files to have a ‘root’ variable where you could set the home directory. ~davidrhoden
Implementation of CSS Paged Media. To me this seems to be the missing link of modern technology. ~Rene_Kriest
a way to disable, or set the device orientation. PLEASE. We need that. ~Fokker680
background image rendering in firefox. I dislike how it needs either a or text to start rendering the image. ~joshsager
CSS Filters ~derSchepp
an adaptive image file format. ~derSchepp
media queries attrs on base/img tags. Will enable downloading smaller images for smaller screens. ~yoavweiss
a way to manipulate asset request urls with js on the client before they go out (for serving responsive imgs, etc). …which already worked until a couple months ago when browser img prefetching became more aggressive. ~scottjehl
The one annoying me at the moment is the landscape rotation bug in Mobile Safari: tinyurl.com/5sr7qkm ~Pipsqueaks
Styling
CSS blendmodes. div{blendmode:’overlay’} but also div{background:’multiply’ rgba(0,0,0,.3)} + for div{color:’add’ #fff} ~mknol
css blend modes ~waynethebrain
blending modes. Like multiply/overlay/etc in PS. ~gb
Full support for @ page w3.org/TR/CSS2/page.h… ~sanbeiji
I’d fix pixel overflow & underflow in IE Chrome & Safari. ~jon_neal
this would for me be to not use curvycorners js hacks to get rounded borders to work in IE ~Iclevettdesigns
multiple background images. ~Iclevettdesigns
A unified and publicized set of selectors for styling the shadow dom of input/select/etc. elements ~JasonWyatt
I’d like CSS to have an inherit:none feature, especially helpful when you’re inheriting from styles you have no control over. ~JayDWhiting
Text
text-stretch. :) ~jonas_lund
Proper text anti-aliasing on Chrome. Large type looks awful. Note: IE and FF have this already. ~andybastable
Text Flow or caret(Position/Range)FromPoint. I’ve spent weeks on columns, text flow, and non-contenteditable wysiwyg, etc. ~grayrest
Give me inset text-shadows in all browsers and proper edge antialiasing in Chrome and I’m all yours. ~matthewmorek
There is some small bug with text sometimes (become lighter a bit, when canvas is loaded to that page). ~slobodan_
Kerning and consistent type anti-aliasing across all platforms :) ~endtwist
DirectWrite in all browsers on all platforms. ~H_FJ
Layout
absolute centering of images etc in a given div would be one ~yemster
I want rock solid layout. Like flexbox/ms-grid including vertical alignment. Basically, table-layout without the tables. ~b4nn0n
Strong finalized layout system. Strong forms support for real apps. HTML CSS JS unreachable for the user. No way to modify pages ~fpiat
better CSS layouts. I know it’s coming, not fast enough ~sethladd
A real layout system :) ~natecavanaugh
it shouldn’t be so difficult to build columns and vertically center things. Seriously why are these still problematic. ~nathan_vaughn
layout. hands down. ~boblet
Add sane CSS-based layouts to all browsers. ~jon_neal
flexbox everywhere ~mislav
Have css3 column-count and width work in all browsers, but revert to a stack in resolutions below multi-column width. ~J_Grimm_
position:fixed and overflow:scroll on all desktop and mobile browsers would make my day ~prundin
Vertical and “middle” float. I want to be able to put elements in the middle of other elements, horizontally and vertically. ~iliadraznin
My #1 is a simply a better layout system. Flexbox = meh. ~roblifford
a box model that programatically closer to an AS3 sprite ~darrownet
display:table in IE6 ~SubtleGradient
Mobile, position: fixed. ~ljharb
WYSIWYG / Native rich-text editor
All contenteditable related madness: commands, generated HTML, and selection API ~jpscaletti
more consistent and improved implementation of contenteditable. That would really improve and slim down web based editors. ~DannySorensen
Animation
Broader hardware-acceleration coverage for the display layer. The richness of native mobile/flash is driven by unflinching 60fps. ~teej_m
I want to stop repainting from flickering and screwing with my animations. ~tdreyno
Bugfix: Hardware-accelerated DOM manipulation using translate3d on Android Browser. ~bniswe
(smooth) #CSS3 animations for ALL browsers! ~AndrewHenderson
transition/animate pseudo-elements! ~jacobdubail
On Android. Hardware Accelerated CSS Transforms. ~edwk
CSS transitions (they’re just slow and outclassed by javascript in terms of speed) ~thijsjacobs
Decent HW rendering in Android please ~danmux
2d graphics / Canvas / SVG
Acceleration/performance on SVG. Also think I found a leak with SVG in Chrome when tabs are hidden (but no repro yet). ~notmatt
Faster drawing with 2d canvas context. ~monteslu
There is some small bug with text sometimes (become lighter a bit, when canvas is loaded to that page). ~slobodan_
Good Canvas support for mobile browsers. ~andybastable
canvas.drawWindow. Don’t even see why it should be restricted to extensions (except in the case of cross domain content) ~bgrins
Sony’s Trilithium did this by binding HW accelerated scene graph, ala Core Animation. satine.org/archives/2011/… ~charlietuna
3d graphics / WebGL
compressed textures for webgl, and everything else people already said. ~sethladd
WebGL support in IE would change a lot when it comes to browser games. For 3D as well as 2D. ~ippalix
Good WebGL support for mobile browsers. ~andybastable
Web Storage
Making localStorage infinite size ~nikolatankovic
Web storage and offline use is a huge mess, even on latest gecko/webkit ~alexbosworth
History
full acceptance of the History API & Ajax. It’s all about user experience. ~Scottblew
Make browsers understand previous states so that Ajax and back-btn & bookmaring can be implemented easier/seamlessly. ~vmasto
File API
Not easy but (until we’re all cloud based), a rich and safe way to write webapps to handle local files too crbug.com/47416 That would let us write webapps to replace all sorts of things that currently have to be desktop apps ~schmerg
all browsers need stable and consistent support of the JS File API ~MeltingIce
integration with the desktop and OS (file API is one of the first things) ~dnagir
File Uploads
resumable, managed, async browser based file uploads ~tilsammans
Offline / App Cache
a better app cache API (with improved debugging) stevesouders.com/blog/2011/10/0… ~alex_gibson
Web storage and offline use is a huge mess, even on latest gecko/webkit ~alexbosworth
app cache that doesn’t suck. ~miketaylr
Fix network-connection JS events:we have online/offline for hardware but what about netonline/netoffline for Inet traffic tests? ~adamrmcd
I’m going to +1 application cache. @SlexAxton @miketaylr & @julio_ody ~benschwarz
that the offline HTML5 API would give a lot more control over the cache. Not sure that’s what you asked though ~julio_ody
Firefoxes app cache permission requester ~derSchepp
Communication and Web Sockets
I’d vote for some way to do P2P connections, or at least some way of opening arbitrary ports in some secure, sandboxed way. ~rakesh314
Websockets… ~okinsey
Secure websockets on all browsers will make creating web apps easier. That is a dream right now. ~chrisreister
Uniform websocket support across all browsers. ~clofresh
Cross domain xhr (as a new session, without the cookies of the original site) ~elado
cross domain xhr, but creating a new session and not sending the original cookies. could save jsonp/proxies. ~elado
universal support of push notifications without the browser being open. ~ChrisLove
not The Single Bug, but here’s one: being able to verify the content sent was the content delivered. Probably via headers & apis. Useful when deploying for mobile/roaming use or in corporate networks when behind proxies. ~rem
better support for XHR-2 on mobile. iOS partially supports but barely. in the case of the XHR-2 stuff it replaces the API, with a much less functional API on iOS :( PhoneGap is making the effort, but it needs to act as a polyfill and not a replacement API ~bcardarella
cross domain xhr, but creating a new session and not sending the original cookies. could save jsonp/proxies. ~elado
if could ask for my last gift to the three wise men I’d like peer to peer communication, with WebRTC is close to be here ~cbullokles
Desktop / OS Integration
more OS integrations (like file upload from iOS, access to camera, cross-platform dragdrop files) ~mislav
fullscreen maybe ~slobodan_
integration with the desktop and OS (file API is one of the first things) ~dnagir
On the desktop: Intents (cross app integration). ~edwk
Widgets
Begin supporting the W3C Widget spec. ~mwbrooks
I really like the support to w3c widgets included in opera. It helps to package web applications as normal apps ~cbullokles
Greater steps towards W3C Widgets ~mwbrooks
better encapsulation similar to Mozillas XUL widgets seems like a big one. ~blrandel
Browser Extensions
also actual cross-browser extensions APIs and packaging while you’re handing out unicorn lollipops. ~miketaylr
Browser UI (App-land)
Modifying native context menu. ~JanKuca
Access to system-level elements. Buttons, contextual menu, etc. Why can my web app look more like a desktop app? ~sternmeyer
Firefox’s rogue input styling that differs from all other browsers. Inability to style input elements in general in Firefox. ~taitems
Browser UI (User-land)
I usually close browser tabs with shortcuts, the “x”, is actually a hazard for me. Thankfullly there’s command-shift-T to reopen. ~ckundo
Showing which of the 30 tabs I have open just started playing that song everyone hates, with some kind of icon/colour change? ~josscrowcroft
an option to freeze all non-active tabs and browser instances to gain performance and a disruption free browsing experience ~tuskali
Browser features (out of scope)
a bit late but still, id include in every browser a feature like “safari reader” (not as extension) and make width resizeable ~askoth
not having web inspector’s CSS panel jump to the top of the declaration every time I double-click a rule to make a live change. ~mklickman
file:/// in Chrome. But it would never get accepted :p ~me1000
better bookmarking. Implement thematic and context sensitive trails the way Vannevar Bush envisioned. ~mik3cap
And a built-in bandwidth throttler / slow-mo mode. ~kpk
Ummmm
is this a trick question? ~webandy
a troll fix ~mynameiscolin
sprinkles! ~jeanniev
counterweights to balance out the missing goats ~anthonydispezio
I would like Backbone.js to be built-in. Just kidding. ~julio_ody
Is this question partially inspired by nczonline.net/blog/2011/10/0…? ~roblifford
A feature that allows browsers to detect duplicate @wycats tweets. ~jamespearce