But, you don't need to incorporate every new feature into your own web projects, and you don't need to follow the same rapid release cycle as the browsers.
Sure, but then if the features aren't going to be incorporated into new projects almost immediately, browsers don't need to push out new releases (and the attendant risk of regressions) every few weeks either. The biggest claimed advantage of the rapid release cycles doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
If my project has an annual update cycle, I want to be certain that any new browser features I'd like to use are widely supported and have been tested in-the-wild for as long as possible before I commit to them.
That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Unfortunately, I think it's also reasonable to assume that lots of other people who might be interested in that same feature will behave the same way. It's therefore not reasonable to assume that those new features have in fact been thoroughly tested in-the-wild before you rely on them.
A related concern is that with the very rapid release cycles, you never really know when an implementation is "final". We've seen fundamental changes over recent years in everything from the syntax for new CSS features to the layout of controls on multimedia elements, sometimes more than once in the same browser within a few months of each other. At least if you ship functionality updates several months apart you offer a degree of definitive behaviour and stability.
also ensures that there will be blogs and StackOverflow questions providing useful documentation on the best ways to use the new features by the time I'm ready to learn about them.
It seems you've had better luck than me. I frequently find that when we run into issues with relatively recent developments in browsers, there are a handful of other people writing blog posts or writing SO questions that show we're not alone, but no-one actually has the answer.
It's also worth considering that just because the main production release of a browser only updates, say, annually, that doesn't necessarily mean that the browser can't also have developer releases going out more regularly for those who want to experiment with new features.
Valid points. I think each new feature will likely interest a different set of developers, so the feature can still get pretty wide testing even if a lot of developers choose to wait for it to mature, or choose not to use it at all.
I do agree with your points about the rapid release of browser bugs alongside the new features. I've had multiple occasions where clients have told me "You changed something and broke the site" on a project I haven't been working on, only to find out it's only broken in Chrome. My response to them that it's a bug in Chrome that's been reported, affects lots of websites, and will probably be fixed in a few days/weeks, and there's little or nothing I can do about it, is never satisfying.
Sure, but then if the features aren't going to be incorporated into new projects almost immediately, browsers don't need to push out new releases (and the attendant risk of regressions) every few weeks either. The biggest claimed advantage of the rapid release cycles doesn't stand up to scrutiny.
If my project has an annual update cycle, I want to be certain that any new browser features I'd like to use are widely supported and have been tested in-the-wild for as long as possible before I commit to them.
That seems perfectly reasonable to me. Unfortunately, I think it's also reasonable to assume that lots of other people who might be interested in that same feature will behave the same way. It's therefore not reasonable to assume that those new features have in fact been thoroughly tested in-the-wild before you rely on them.
A related concern is that with the very rapid release cycles, you never really know when an implementation is "final". We've seen fundamental changes over recent years in everything from the syntax for new CSS features to the layout of controls on multimedia elements, sometimes more than once in the same browser within a few months of each other. At least if you ship functionality updates several months apart you offer a degree of definitive behaviour and stability.
also ensures that there will be blogs and StackOverflow questions providing useful documentation on the best ways to use the new features by the time I'm ready to learn about them.
It seems you've had better luck than me. I frequently find that when we run into issues with relatively recent developments in browsers, there are a handful of other people writing blog posts or writing SO questions that show we're not alone, but no-one actually has the answer.
It's also worth considering that just because the main production release of a browser only updates, say, annually, that doesn't necessarily mean that the browser can't also have developer releases going out more regularly for those who want to experiment with new features.