The collapse of Netscape made the browser a one-party system, and that doesn't work, not even for Microsoft. That was the end of the browser as the space for innovation. But there's no shortage of people with ideas, so the bulge is happening around the browser and outside of it. Sure there will be coalescing, but never, never let it get all the way to one party. Once that happens, the fun is over.
Standardization is good, but competition is better.
Choice is necessary. If the gorillas stop listening to the indepedent developers, as they have in the recent past, we have our way out. XML-RPC and SOAP are owned by the Internet now. Every instance of interop helps insure our independence, and immunity from hostile takeovers from the giant technology companies. And every journalist who joins provides even more insurance.