Google Chrome, Microsoft Edge and Mozilla Firefox are three big browsers, and they have all agreed to put their cross-browser documentation to the Mozilla Developer Network (MDN) wiki.
The three is making Mozilla's MDN Web Docs educational platform their home for documentation about web APIs and information. So rather than becoming a resource for just Firefox, Mozilla's MDN Web Docs is also for Chrome and Edge
The site contains information that should help developers in implementing JavaScript, CSS, HTML, and various web APIs. What's more, having a single repository should make it simpler for developers to access cross-browser documentation.
In preparation for the shared repository, Mozilla has renamed its MDN to MDN Web Docs to de-emphasize "Mozilla" back in July 2017. This is to reflect the site's broader audience that is covering more than its own products (Firefox, Gecko and Add-ons).
Another effort by Mozilla to make the site a neutral place, is by separating product documentation from web documentation.
This effort is to make all players involved to adhere similar set of standards. Since there are multiple players from across the technology spectrum and, of course, multiple browsers, MDN Web Docs is meant to eliminate fragmentation and ensure end-users have a fairly consistent browsing experience.
Google has been moving its web API documentation to MDN for years. But with Mozilla's MDN, the search giant is additionally investing in interoperability tests for the web, and also building new infrastructure to help browser developers find bugs and missing APIs between implementations.
As for Microsoft, it has already redirected over 7,700 pages of Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN) documentation library to corresponding pages on Mozilla’s MDN Web Docs. It has also been backfilling the site's browser compatibility tables with details about its Edge browser.
All Edge's web APIs are already documented on MDN Web Docs.
While Microsoft is joining the crowd, the company is still maintaining Microsoft Edge Developer site, its own documentation pages for guidance specific to its Edge browser for status, change logs and news updates.
With Google and Microsoft joining Mozilla, the MDN Web Docs is aiming to become the "most comprehensive, complete, and trusted reference documenting the most important aspects of modern browsers and web standards."
According to Mozilla, MDN's content is growing and improving, with 8,021 users having written 76,203 edits in 2017 alone, with 5,000 edits coming from Microsoft writers.
"MDN's mission is simple: to provide developers with the information they need to easily build projects on the open Web. If it's an open technology exposed to the Web, we want to document it."
The project is led led by a Product Advisory Board for MDN that is in charge of handling relations between the companies involved, keeping documentation up-to-date, keeping MDN browser-agnostic, and keeping developers aware of updates to the platform and documents.
In addition to representatives from the participating corporations, the group has put out a call for active community members who would like to serve on the board.
While the Board can provide recommendations regarding content strategy and site features, Mozilla as the owner of the site, has the final say on decisions.
Representatives from Mozilla, Google, Microsoft, the W3C, and Samsung are already on the MDN Product Advisory Board. Initially, the only notable missing from the advisory board is a representative from Apple. This isn't surprising, given that the Cupertino company isn’t renowned for supporting open web standards. However, Mozilla noted that additional members may be added in future.