@What about IETF and RFC process
The trouble with IETF, RFC, W3C, ECMA etc is that they really know how to bodge a standard - and in the process take years to do it. Look at the shitty "ratified" standards out there for POP3, SMTP, HTTP, HTML, Javascript etc - they are all pants. What is the use of all these committees to check standards, allow all sorts of proprietary rubbish to seep in and then keep coming up with the rubbish that they have.
I actually have sympathy with Microsoft, Google and Sun (Java) because the standards processes are just an excuse for company retards to have a few meetings to discuss politics and get an expenses paid vacation, elongating the process to ensure that next years vacation is sorted. By the time the "community" finish with this protocol it will be ruined. Sometimes you need a big company to come in and just produce a protocol - then things will start to happen.
Google here are doing the right thing and it is in everybodies interest if there are no patent issues - and hopefully it will be adopted because HTTP is a bit old fashioned now and there is scope for improvement, especially now that HTTP is being used for Web 2 communication. If, like AC mentioned, Apache and Mozilla adopt it then it will become standard.