712
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In this episode of Shop Talk Show, host Chris Coyier is joined by Scott Jell, a developer at Squarespace, to discuss the recent rollout of lazy loading for video and audio elements in web browsers. The feature, which allows video and audio tags to defer loading until they're near or within the viewport, is a major performance win, reducing bandwidth usage and improving page load times—especially for sites with many embedded videos. Scott shares the behind-the-scenes journey of how Squarespace engineers, during a Hack Week, spearheaded the standardization of this feature by contributing to browser implementations in Firefox and WebKit, while also writing the spec and tests. The episode dives into the history of responsive video, the removal of media attributes from video source elements, and the community-driven effort to bring them back. Scott also previews an upcoming proposal to make the 'poster' attribute on video elements responsive and accessible via a child image element, which would allow for better accessibility, responsiveness, and control over thumbnails. The conversation highlights the collaborative, open nature of web standards work and celebrates the power of individual initiative in shaping the web.
Lazy loading for video and audio elements is now standardized and will soon land in Chrome, dramatically improving web performance by deferring media loading until needed.
Squarespace engineers led a multi-browser effort to implement and standardize lazy loading for video, demonstrating how individual teams can drive change in web standards.
The 'poster' attribute on video elements is being reimagined to support responsive images and accessibility via a child <img> element, solving longstanding limitations.
Web standards work is accessible to developers: writing specs, tests, and contributing to browser implementations is possible with dedication and community support.
The web platform test suite (WPT) is a critical, shared resource that enables cross-browser consistency and reliable feature validation.
…and 3 more takeaways available in PodZeus
Dave’s Absence and Scott Jell’s Return
Chris welcomes listeners to a solo episode without Dave, introducing Scott Jell, a longtime friend and Squarespace developer, as the guest. The tone is casual and warm, setting the stage for a deep dive into web standards.
Lazy Loading for Video and Audio: The Big Win
“You can put thousands of them in static HTML and they'll just fetch when they're visible.”
The History of Responsive Video and the Media Attribute
“It was removed from the spec. Two browsers, Firefox and Chrome, removed their support. And there's not a lot of precedent for features pulling from the HTML spec.”
Squarespace’s Hack Week: Building the Future of Web Standards
“We had like I tended to be working on the spec writing part... teammates making WebKit and Firefox builds, and a Chromium build.”
The Web Standards Process: From Idea to Browser
Scott walks through the full lifecycle of standardization: filing issues, writing specs, creating tests, presenting to the WHATWG, and securing vendor interest. He emphasizes the collaborative, open nature of the process.
“It was removed from the spec. Two browsers, Firefox and Chrome, removed their support. And there's not a lot of precedent for features pulling from the HTML spec.”
“You can put thousands of them in static HTML and they'll just fetch when they're visible.”
“We had like I tended to be working on the spec writing part... teammates making WebKit and Firefox builds, and a Chromium build.”
Host
Guest
Scott Jell
person
Squarespace
organization
HTML Standard
other
Firefox
other
Chris Coyier
person
Web Platform Tests
other
WebKit
other
Chromium
other
Dave
person
WHATWG
organization
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