[mehdim]

This is not always the "standard" which wins. You may have also de-facto standards like MS-DOS in 1980' which was an "shell to rule them all" and which has made Microsoft a multi-billionar company and has been more used than UNIX which was better and open!

Either is the standard, either it the the most adapted product/company (not necesseraly technologically) which wins the pot. This is technology AND business model, user community, strategic partnerships which will make an API to rule them all a defacto standard which will lead the programmable web. But you're right that IETF standards for APIs may be so long that I consider it is not possible untill decades !(or a leader which will open and free its winning standart to all only)