16.1The Timeline

2004 ──── Selenium 1.0 (JavaScript injection)
   │
2011 ──── Selenium 2.0 / WebDriver (HTTP + JSON)
   │
2017 ──── Chrome DevTools Protocol (CDP) gains traction
   │      Puppeteer launches (CDP-based)
   │
2018 ──── WebDriver becomes W3C standard
   │
2020 ──── Playwright launches (CDP-based, multi-browser)
   │
2021 ──── WebDriver BiDi work begins at W3C
   │
2023 ──── Puppeteer adds BiDi support
   │
2024 ──── Selenium 4 integrates BiDi
   │
2025 ──── Vibium launches (BiDi-native)
   │      Playwright MCP server ships
   │
2026 ──── BiDi is mainstream: WebdriverIO v9 defaults to it,
         ~70% of CDP surface covered (Chrome + Firefox)
         CLI + Skills becomes the recommended AI-agent path
         (Microsoft's own Playwright CLI adopts it)

Fun fact: Vibium is created by Jason Huggins — the same person who created Selenium back in 2004.