I am familiar with Nolans article, I created PouchDB (the project he is discussing), you seem to have misred the post as it discusses the technical nuance and tradeoffs involved in the decision at many points entirely agreeing with the position against WebSQL. While Nolan came to the a different conclusion than I did (a point he made in the post) he laid out challenges very well and made it very clear there was no obvious technical answer.

Regardless of how you view it, the benefit of hindsight shows the exact thing that people warned would happen did in fact happen (a widespread venerability in SQLite exposed across various browsers). Its also a fairly strange point to be personally insulting people involved in the process whose careers are doing perfectly well.

Having worked with IndexedDB quite a bit at my job, I can level three criticisms at IndexedDB.

1. The API is the dogshit hot mess you'd expect for a pre promise/async API.

2. The lack of partial/computed secondary indexes.

3. Apple/Safari does EVERYTHING in their power to break it. I refuse to believe it's incompetence at this point, it's actively malicious.

PROLOGUE

Six houses, all alike in dignity, In fair IRC, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From Oracle, that SQL seer of IndexedDB, To Google, the stronghold of search, We add Mozilla, the Web SQL killa, And Apple, peering from its mobile perch. Here, a storage war would set keys to clack, Tongues to wag, and specs to shatter, There was also Microsoft and Opera, Who don't really seem to matter.

THE PLAYERS

NIKUNJ MEHTA, of House ORACLE, an instigator JONAS SICKING, of House MOZILLA, an assassin MACIEJ STACHOWIAK, of House APPLE, a pugilist IAN FETTE, of House GOOGLE, a pleader CHARLES MCCATHIENEVILE, of House OPERA, a peacemaker

ACT 1

SCENE: A dark and gloomy day in Mountain View, or perhaps a bright and cheery one, depending on your IRC client's color scheme.