What WEBP actually, really DOES out in "the world"

[McGrumpus]

IT started out not as a FORMAT per se, but a container that wrapped up at least two real actual image formats and stuck the suffix, 'webp' on the result.  When I saw this come up in the old usenet newsgroup, alt.binaries.3d.poser, I noticed it.   Not because it was faster (it is not), nor because it is smaller (it is not) or better in any way for the USER.  It is not.  What it does NOW that it is considered an actual "image format" (it does not appear to be, but is a scrambled file) the people are seeing it and downloading the images left and right.  And have exactly ONE way to view the images.  They have to use the web browsers that are updated to USE these files.   I use a number of image editors.  Not one of them is able to display any image in this 'format'.

IMO, webp is a bad thing perpetrated upon the public.  And you will never have my support for this so called 'format'.

[Anthony Fuoco]

This has been my experience by happening across a random webp file.  I can see the benefit for companies and developers saving resources.  I needed a reference for drawing and I need to use it in a specific program.  I don't need any of the 'features' webp adds, and I would argue a vast majority of end users don't either.  This genuinely seems like some engineer-brain stuff, hamfisting a solution to a problem that barely exists and not considering how it would affect actual users.  Though that's kind of the legacy of google.