However, IMO, when someone with Yahoo’s influence publishes a table like this every quarter and labels certain browsers as “A-Grade”, “C-Grade”, etc., it’s those labels, and the obvious connotations that people derive from them, that persist; the intent behind the data is lost on many.

That’s only compounded by the fact that there is no _definitive_ counterpart to this list; something that IS, in fact, a rating of a browser’s standards support, performance, and innovation — not just for developers, but for end users. The closest thing I can think of would be ACID test scores, but that’s not a complete evaluation and doesn’t provide specific recommendations.

It might be interesting to see an organization such as Yahoo! establish evaluation criteria for rating browsers on actual merit instead of unfortunate circumstance — not as part of a QA strategy, but to help drive adoption.

- jason

“Is Safari for the iPhone OS an A-grade browser? Our answer: No…”

The question makes it sound like the capabilities of the browser determine its grade, instead of asking if the browser’s market share warrants A-grade support from YUI (as is the case with IE6).