If you've ever tried to build/work on a text area replacement, you'll know that it is an insanely difficult task. Highlighting and manipulating text sounds fairly rudimentary, but each version of each browser has enough bugs to keep a deveoper occupied for weeks with little to show. (I speek from experience.)
I think Google might have the right idea; the new version of gdocs completely ignores the browser's built-in (broken) selection and editing abilities and instead uses pure JavaScript listening for mouse and key events.
Part of it was they wanted to make the tasks and contacts more prominent. The contacts section was changed, in part, to account for things they had added to android. (Specifically the ability to add multiple arbritrary phone numbers.(
I think Google might have the right idea; the new version of gdocs completely ignores the browser's built-in (broken) selection and editing abilities and instead uses pure JavaScript listening for mouse and key events.