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Dart for the Entire Web

We work with many teams, inside and outside of Google, that use Dart every day to build business-critical apps. Their feedback is consistent: they love working with the Dart language, libraries, and tools, and they compile Dart to JavaScript when they deploy to the web.  However, they also tell us they need better integration with JavaScript, and they need an easier way to debug and optimize their apps across all modern browsers. We listened, and today we are announcing a more focused strategy for Dart for the web.

In order to do what's best for our users and the web, and not just Google Chrome, we will focus our web efforts on compiling Dart to JavaScript. We have decided not to integrate the Dart VM into Chrome. Our new web strategy puts us on a path to deliver the features our users need to be more productive building web apps with Dart. It also simplifies the testing and deployment scenarios for our developers, because they can focus on a single way to build, test, and deploy their Dart apps for the web.

Google Ads, one of Dart's biggest customers, is committed to Dart and supports this new strategy. Scott Silver, VP of Engineering for Ads, says, “We are committed to building our next-generation web apps with Dart, and a renewed focus on generating optimal JavaScript helps us deliver great apps to everyone with a modern browser. Dart has significantly improved our engineers' productivity and our ability to quickly launch and iterate. We currently have one million lines of Dart code and the number is growing fast.” Many other teams inside of Google, such as Google Fiber, Google Express, and Google's internal sales team, use Dart for business-critical apps.

Dart developers outside of Google are also very supportive of our new focus. When DGLogik, developers of Internet of Things applications, needed to convert their complex visualization software from Flash to HTML5, they chose Dart because “the Dart team's focus on the entire web ensures we continue to deliver great experiences for all our users.” Dennis Khvostionov, CTO of DGLogik, continues: “Without Dart's productivity benefits and tooling, we'd need a team twice our size.”

Many of our developers use Dart for both client and server apps, reducing costs by sharing code. We remain committed to optimizing and improving the Dart VM for developer tools, servers, and mobile apps.

We started the Dart project because we believe that every developer deserves simplicity, productivity, and performance. Our new web strategy makes it easier for developers to build with, and for, the modern web with Dart. With Google Ads' long-term commitment to Dart, and our new focused strategy for the web, we are excited by our path forward.

- Lars Bak & Kasper Lund, Dart co-founders