The document discusses the current state and future of the web. It notes that while native apps currently dominate mobile usage, the web is working to address its limitations through new features like service workers for offline access, background sync for periodic processing, and push notifications. It highlights tools from Google like Mobile-Friendly Test, Chrome DevTools, and Web Fundamentals. It argues the web needs to simplify onboarding and spread awareness of its capabilities to ensure its long-term viability against native platforms. The future of the web depends on matching and surpassing native capabilities while keeping content universally accessible across different platforms.

1. The Web - What it Has, What it Lacks
and Where it Must Go
@robertnyman

2. Our line of work

3. Face recognition

4. Experience

5. Trends

6. My role at Google

7. My role at Google
https://developers.google.com/android/
https://developers.google.com/ios/
https://developers.google.com/web/

8. My role at Google

9. My role at Google - https://medium.com/latest-from-google

10. The web as of today
The web vs. native
Tools & resources from Google
SLICE
Why do developers need a native app?
Monetization
Future of the web

11. The web
as of today

12. The web as of today

13. The web as of today

14. The web as of today
One billion
active users

15. The web as of today
Morgan Stanley: the web is winning

16. The web
vs. native

17. The web vs. native
comScore: 87% of time on mobile spent in apps
Native is winning

18. The web vs. native
10% of time on mobile spent in the browser

19. The web vs. native
10% of time on mobile spent in the browser

20. The web vs. native
?

21. The web vs. native
Messaging, Social > Gaming

22. The web vs. native
Facebook
One billion daily users,
where 844 million daily
users are on mobile

23. The web vs. native
…and these also have
more than one billion
users:

24. The web vs. native
Visitor traffic to top companies/services

25. The web vs. native

26. The web vs. native

27. Tools &
measures from
Google

28. App install
interstitials being
non-mobile
friendly

29. App install interstitials being non-mobile friendly

30. Mobile-Friendly
Test

31. Mobile-Friendly Test
https://www.google.com/webmasters/tools/mobile-friendly/

32. Communications
& the web

33. Communications & the web

34. Communications & the web
https://hangouts.google.com/

35. Communications & the web
WebRTC
Desktop:
Microsoft Edge
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Opera 18
Android:
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Opera Mobile
Chrome OS
Firefox OS

36. Chrome
DevTools

37. Chrome DevTools
https://developers.google.com/web/tools/chrome-devtools/

38. Web
Fundamentals

39. Web Fundamentals
https://developers.google.com/web/fundamentals/

40. Chrome Custom
Tabs

41. Chrome Custom Tabs
https://developer.chrome.com/multidevice/android/customtabs

42. SLICE

43. Google influencers
Paul Kinlan
Jake Archibald
Alex Russell
Paul Lewis
Paul Irish
+ many more

44. The web, moving forward
Build instantly
engaging sites
and apps
without the need
for a mandatory
app download

45. SLICE
Secure

46. SLICE
Linkable

47. SLICE
Indexable

48. SLICE
Composable

49. SLICE
Ephemeral

50. Why do developers
need a native app?

51. Performance
Sensors
OS-specific features
Offline access
Periodic background processing
Notifications
Why do developers need a native app?
From Brian Kennan

52. Performance
Sensors
OS-specific features
Offline access
Periodic background processing
Notifications
Why do developers need a native app?
From Brian Kennan

53. Initiatives to address this
New web features

54. Offline access
=>
Service Workers
Service Workers

55. It's a JavaScript Worker, so it can't access the DOM
directly. Instead responds to postMessages
Service worker is a programmable network proxy
It will be terminated when not in use, and restarted
when it's next needed
Makes extensive use of Promises
Service Workers

56. HTTPS is Needed
Service Workers

57. Register and Installing a Service Worker
if ('serviceWorker' in navigator) {
navigator.serviceWorker.register('/sw.js').then(function(registration) {
// Registration was successful
console.log('ServiceWorker registration successful with scope: ',
registration.scope);
}).catch(function(err) {
// registration failed :(
console.log('ServiceWorker registration failed: ', err);
});
}

58. chrome://inspect/#service-workers
Service Workers

59. // The files we want to cache
var urlsToCache = [
'/',
'/styles/main.css',
'/script/main.js'
];
// Set the callback for the install step
self.addEventListener('install', function(event) {
// Perform install steps
});
Installing a Service Worker

60. Inside our install callback:
1. Open a cache
2. Cache our files
3. Confirm whether all the required
assets are cached or not
Installing a Service Worker

61. Install callback
var CACHE_NAME = 'my-site-cache-v1';
var urlsToCache = [
'/',
'/styles/main.css',
'/script/main.js'
];
self.addEventListener('install', function(event) {
// Perform install steps
event.waitUntil(
caches.open(CACHE_NAME)
.then(function(cache) {
console.log('Opened cache');
return cache.addAll(urlsToCache);
})
);
});

62. self.addEventListener('fetch', function(event) {
event.respondWith(
caches.match(event.request)
.then(function(response) {
// Cache hit - return response
if (response) {
return response;
}
return fetch(event.request);
}
)
);
});
Caching and Returning Requests

63. Updating a Service Worker

64. 1. Update your service worker JavaScript file.
2. Your new service worker will be started and the
install event will be fired.
3. New Service Worker will enter a "waiting" state
4. When open pages are closed, the old Service
Worker will be killed - new service worker will take
control.
5. Once new Service Worker takes control, its
activate event will be fired.
Updating a Service Worker

65. Periodic background processing
=>
BackgroundSync

66. Web Background Synchronization
https://slightlyoff.github.io/BackgroundSync/spec/

67. Notifications
=>
Push notifications

68. Push notifications

69. // Are Notifications supported in the service worker?
if (!('showNotification' in ServiceWorkerRegistration.prototype)) {
console.warn('Notifications aren't supported.');
return;
}
Push notifications

70. // Check the current Notification permission.
// If its denied, it's a permanent block until the
// user changes the permission
if (Notification.permission === 'denied') {
console.warn('The user has blocked notifications.');
return;
}
Push notifications

71. // Check if push messaging is supported
if (!('PushManager' in window)) {
console.warn('Push messaging isn't supported.');
return;
}
Push notifications

72. // We need the service worker registration to check for a subscription
navigator.serviceWorker.ready.then(function(serviceWorkerRegistration) {
// Do we already have a push message subscription?
serviceWorkerRegistration.pushManager.getSubscription()
.then(function(subscription) {
// Enable any UI which subscribes / unsubscribes from
// push messages.
var pushButton = document.querySelector('.js-push-button');
pushButton.disabled = false;
if (!subscription) {
// We aren't subscribed to push, so set UI
// to allow the user to enable push
return;
}
// Keep your server in sync with the latest subscriptionId
sendSubscriptionToServer(subscription);
// Set your UI to show they have subscribed for
// push messages
pushButton.textContent = 'Disable Push Messages';
isPushEnabled = true;
})
.catch(function(err) {
console.warn('Error during getSubscription()', err);
});
});
Push notifications

73. {
"name": "Push Demo",
"short_name": "Push Demo",
"icons": [{
"src": "images/icon-192x192.png",
"sizes": "192x192",
"type": "image/png"
}],
"start_url": "/index.html?homescreen=1",
"display": "standalone"
}
<link rel="manifest" href="manifest.json">
Push notifications

74. Add to
Homescreen

75. Cache management & whitelistsApp Install Banners

76. App Install Banners prerequisites
You have a web app manifest file
You have a service worker registered on
your site. We recommend a simple custom
offline page service worker
Your site is served over HTTPS (you need a
service worker after all)
The user has visited your site twice over
two separate days during the course of two
weeks.

77. All this leads to
progressive
apps

78. Progressive Apps
These apps aren’t packaged and deployed
through stores, they’re just websites that took all
the right vitamins.
They keep the web’s ask-when-you-need-it
permission model and add in new capabilities
like being top-level in your task switcher, on your
home screen, and in your notification tray
- Alex Russell

79. Monetization

80. Future of the web

81. Future of the web
WAWKI
-
Web as We Know It

82. Future of the web
Why the web?

83. Future of the web
Native platforms needs to be
matched and surpassed

84. Future of the web
Getting people back to using URLs,
sharing things online and making it
accessible across all platforms

85. Future of the web
Go simple

86. Future of the web
Go simple
Right now the onboarding process for a (front-
end) web developer is much harder than it
was before

87. Future of the web
Go simple
We've gone from HTML, CSS and JavaScript
to incredibly complex solutions, build scripts &
workflows

88. Future of the web
Spread the word about
what the web can do

89. Future of the web
Longevity of the web
Where stuff being built will still
work 10 years down the line

90. Future of the web

91. Robert Nyman
robertnyman.com
nyman@google.com
Google
@robertnyman