[jeresig]

Are there better JavaScript libraries than jQuery at certain things? Absolutely -- look to Backbone, Angular, Meteor, etc. etc. Are they better than jQuery at doing DOM manipulation? I think that's an easy argument simply by looking at the numbers: http://trends.builtwith.com/javascript/jQuery

jQuery or WebKit being dominant platforms doesn't requite that innovation stop, it gives innovation the ability to explode: When you don't have to work about nit-picky cross-platform capabilities or standardization then you get to focus on performance and building sweet frameworks like Backbone and Angular.

[oinksoft]

  I think that's an easy argument simply by looking at the
  numbers

Popular does not imply "better."

[breck]

Popularity is highly correlated with quality.

Given that A is 10-100x more popular than B, what are the odds that B is "better" than A? Slim.

Now, popularity does not imply that something is the best. Often times there is something better that isn't as popular. But generally the popular thing is better than most alternatives.

[dvhh]

Popularity is no correlated with quality, more with "good enough for the price".

[phpnode]

Backbone, Angular, Meteor etc etc ALL use jQuery!

[pestaa]

Wrong. At least Angular JS brings its own jQuery-like functions and does not depend on jQuery by itself.

[camus]

angularjs uses jquery api , like zepto does it is a hidden dependency. but you are basically using a subset of jquery when you use angularjs.

[qu4z-2]

And Gecko uses most of the WebKit api. We're talking about implementations here, not specs.

[camus]

the implementation is the same.if you use jQuery script the jQlite code is disabled in AngularJS. it is only possible if the subset code respect all the behavior or the main code. And Gecko doesnt use Webkit api at all. Chrome just cant swap its webkit code to to Gecko without significant rewrite.