Saturday reading ☕️ How one engineering team got a feature into a web standard
How Squarespace took lazy loading for video and audio from an idea to the HTML standard, working with browser teams.
Squarespace and web standards: the story of how the team added loading="lazy" for <video> and <audio> to HTML.
In the Squarespace article, engineer Scott Jehl tells the whole story:
- from the idea and initial discussions
- to working with WHATWG
- writing Web Platform Tests
- and collaborating with the Mozilla, Apple, and Chromium teams
📅 The result: the feature became part of the standard on March 23, 2026.
Why this is interesting:
- a good example of how web standards actually emerge, rather than “someone somewhere decided”
- plenty about the process: discussions, compromises, tests
- and a little about the performance improvements we ultimately get “for free”
💡 And yes, lazy loading is no longer just for <img> and <iframe>
If you want something light but useful to read about the web’s inner workings, I highly recommend it 👇