For example, it’s long been held that when you define an extension point in a standard, you generally need some way to coordinate it. The IETF does this with registries; the W3C had a fashion for using URIs as namespaces for a time (and then vendor prefixes — but that’s another rant). If browsers themselves become that lynchpin, you don’t need registries or namespaces; you just edit the spec — provided that the spec is faithfully reflecting what the browsers implement. The argument goes that in a browser-ruled Web, other software using the specification doesn’t want to diverge from the behavior of a Web browser, because doing so would cause interoperability problems and thereby reduce that software’s value. So, just make sure the browsers are walking in lockstep and document what they do in the specs; you don’t need no stinking registry.

Nice overview how Web standards work these days

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