Framework · 2013–2020 · Cloud Scale
Polymer / Web Components hype
Google's web components push before the platform was ready. Shadow DOM slides; React won the component war.
Polymer faded because web components solved encapsulation years before tooling and SSR stories caught up. Every framework rolled its own component model faster than standards landed. The primitives stuck in browsers; the framework did not.
Context
Split everything, then pay for the glue
Hyperscale patterns escaped the companies that needed them. Containers unified packaging; Kubernetes became the cloud OS; microservices and NoSQL were sold as defaults. Mobile-first stuck because screens changed. Cargo-cult distributed systems stuck around as invoices. The durable move was packaging and ops maturity — not rewriting every app into a mesh.
Compare with
Related
Framework · 2016–now
Angular (2+)
Batteries-included SPA platform for teams that want opinions and CLI scaffolding.
Framework · 2013–now
React
Components and unidirectional data. Won the front-end by being good enough and having a gravitational ecosystem.
Language · 1995–now
JavaScript
The only language that runs in every browser. Accidental monopoly turned deliberate platform.