What is WebKit and how is it related to CSS?

Question

More recently, I have been seeing questions with the tag "webkit". Such questions usually tend to be web-based questions relating to CSS, jQuery, layouts, cross-browers compatibility issues, etc...

So what is this "webkit" and how does it relate to CSS? I have also noticed a lot of -webkit-... properties in the source code for various websites. Are these two related?

Update

So from the answers so far... WebKit is a HTML/CSS web browser rendering engine for Safari/Chrome. Are there such engines for IE/Opera/Firefox and what are the differences, pros and cons of using one over the other? Can I use WebKit features in Firefox for example?

The ultimate question... Is WebKit supported by IE?

Update 2

All of the major browsers use different rendering engines. I guess this is a big reason why there are so many cross-browser compatibility issues!

So, is there some kind of project or movement to a standard rendering engine that ALL browsers will use? Will HTML5 bring an end to the cross-browser compatibility issues?

Answer 1

Update: So apparently, WebKit is a HTML/CSS web browser rendering engine for Safari/Chrome. Are there such engines for IE/Opera/Firefox and what are the differences, pros and cons of using one over the other? Can I use WebKit features in Firefox for example?

Every browser is backed by a rendering engine to draw the HTML/CSS web page.

• IE → Trident (discontinued)
• Edge → EdgeHTML (clean-up fork of Trident) (Edge switched to Blink in 2019)
• Firefox → Gecko
• Opera → Presto (no longer uses Presto since Feb 2013, consider Opera = Chrome, therefore Blink nowadays)
• Safari → WebKit
• Chrome → Blink (a fork of Webkit).

See Comparison of web browser engines for a list of comparisons in different areas.

The ultimate question... is WebKit supported by IE?

Not natively.

Answer 2

Addition to what @KennyTM said:

• IE
  • Engine: Trident
  • CSS-prefix: -ms
• Edge
  • Engine: EdgeHTML → Blink³
  • CSS-prefix: -ms
• Firefox
  • Engine: Gecko
  • CSS-prefix: -moz
• Opera
  • Engine: Presto → Blink¹
  • CSS-prefix: -o (Presto) and -webkit (Blink)
• Safari
  • Engine: WebKit
  • CSS-prefix: -webkit
• Chrome
  • Engine: WebKit → Blink²
  • CSS-prefix: -webkit

¹⁾ On February 12 2013 Opera (version 15+) announces they moving away from their own engine Presto to WebKit named Blink.

²⁾ On April 3 2013 Google (Chrome version 28+) announces they are going to use the WebKit-based Blink engine.

³⁾ On December 6 2018 Microsoft (Microsoft Edge 79+ stable) announces they are going to use the WebKit-based Blink engine.