2000 web may work well for you but there are many of us who desire and even need the newer web standards. I am glad we are extending our applications with open standards rather than closed implementation-specific solutions of the past.

I think we all really under-appreciate the marvel that is our current web. We run large complex distributed applications with remote frontends on our sandboxed environments. For most of the things I don't have to install apps anymore, which means as a linux user I finally get to access a similar ecosystem as everyone else. From running businesses to having fun to tinkering around, everything happens in this single window in our computers.

I have my concerns about google as well but I am glad mozilla and google have led to the interesting new web that we have today.