Maybe consider removing the entire interface/element - or at least add a use counter for it.

There is https://www.chromestatus.com/metrics/feature/timeline/popularity/1037, is there any other interesting observable effect that the view element has? In any event, a counter in the constructor seems like a good idea, just in case that's crazy high for some reason.

Yeah, that's a fairly strong indication it's not being used (for its intended purpose at least... that's the only function it has.) It wouldn't surprise me if there are <view> element's in content though (after all they are theoretically useful for sprite-definitions and such.)

I am planning to remove entire SVGViewElement and its interface.
And will post 'intent' to blink-dev.
Shall I file a separate bug for it ?

The view element is still in the SVG spec:
https://svgwg.org/svg2-draft/linking.html#ViewElement

So a good first step is to measure the SVGViewElement contructor and any other interesting points where it has an effect, to get an idea of whether removing it would be safe. It might also be a good idea to file an SVG spec issue to float the idea of removal, in case somebody can say up front why it's not a worthwhile effort.

Agree..
I will add a UseCounter in SVGViewElement contructor.
There is already usecounter (SVGSVGElementFragmentSVGViewElement), when SVGViewElement having some effect.
But this usage is already pointing to Zero.

Right, we should expect that usage of the view element is roughly zero as well. Getting the spec discussion started to reach some consensus in spec land and then waiting for the use counter data to arrive seems like a good approach to me.

filed spec bug:
https://github.com/w3c/svgwg/issues/231

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/64e154a121889ecffbf0edaed11708b18257aa50

commit 64e154a121889ecffbf0edaed11708b18257aa50
Author: shanmuga.m <shanmuga.m@samsung.com>
Date: Tue Aug 09 16:54:57 2016

Measure SVGViewElement Constructor

There is already usecounter (SVGSVGElementFragmentSVGViewElement), when SVGViewElement having some effect.
But this usage is already pointing to Zero

Measuring SVGViewElement constructor will give more usage details of this.

BUG= 633908 

Review-Url: https://codereview.chromium.org/2213423002
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#410709}

[modify] https://crrev.com/64e154a121889ecffbf0edaed11708b18257aa50/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/frame/UseCounter.h
[modify] https://crrev.com/64e154a121889ecffbf0edaed11708b18257aa50/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/svg/SVGViewElement.cpp
[modify] https://crrev.com/64e154a121889ecffbf0edaed11708b18257aa50/tools/metrics/histograms/histograms.xml

Spec bug discussion going towards continuing support of SVGViewElement.
https://github.com/w3c/svgwg/issues/231
As per the discussion , SVGViewElement seems useful. 

So can we proceed to deprecate SVGViewElement.viewTarget ?

As per https://github.com/w3c/svgwg/issues/231, it is decided <view> element will stay.
So proceed to deprecate SVGViewElement.viewTarget is meaningful for this bug.
Any thoughts?

I've confirmed that the viewTarget content attribute doesn't do anything except being reflected in the viewTarget IDL attribute, so attempting removal sounds good. Suggest sending an Intent to Deprecate and Remove with 2 milestones for the deprecation message since this is not in a hurry.

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/b85218655b21bf4a6982336064074fb07a632121

commit b85218655b21bf4a6982336064074fb07a632121
Author: shanmuga.m <shanmuga.m@samsung.com>
Date: Tue Sep 06 14:44:12 2016

Deprecate SVGViewElement.viewTarget attribute

As per SVG2.0, SVGViewElement.viewTarget is removed.
https://github.com/w3c/svgwg/commit/c1690ae1b99aa95c648a304ec7a8f7dec46d7c83

Intent to Deprecate and Remove:
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/blink-dev/X3kyDbj9xlA

BUG= 633908 

Review-Url: https://codereview.chromium.org/2316593002
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#416626}

[add] https://crrev.com/b85218655b21bf4a6982336064074fb07a632121/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/svg/dom/SVGViewElement-viewTarget-expected.txt
[add] https://crrev.com/b85218655b21bf4a6982336064074fb07a632121/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/svg/dom/SVGViewElement-viewTarget.html
[modify] https://crrev.com/b85218655b21bf4a6982336064074fb07a632121/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/frame/Deprecation.cpp
[modify] https://crrev.com/b85218655b21bf4a6982336064074fb07a632121/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/svg/SVGViewElement.idl

The following revision refers to this bug:
  https://chromium.googlesource.com/chromium/src.git/+/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941

commit 335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941
Author: shanmuga.m <shanmuga.m@samsung.com>
Date: Tue Nov 15 08:20:27 2016

Remove SVGViewElement.viewTarget attribute

As per SVG2.0, SVGViewElement.viewTarget is removed.
https://github.com/w3c/svgwg/commit/c1690ae1b99aa95c648a304ec7a8f7dec46d7c83

Intent to Deprecate and Remove:
https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/forum/#!topic/blink-dev/X3kyDbj9xlA

BUG= 633908 

Review-Url: https://codereview.chromium.org/2488703003
Cr-Commit-Position: refs/heads/master@{#432144}

[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/android_webview/tools/system_webview_shell/test/data/webexposed/global-interface-listing-expected.txt
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/html5lib/resources/tests11.dat
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/imported/wpt/svg/historical-expected.txt
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/platform/linux/virtual/stable/webexposed/global-interface-listing-expected.txt
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/platform/win/virtual/stable/webexposed/global-interface-listing-expected.txt
[delete] https://crrev.com/61c7f1e91089a5bacddd84777af3cd06c647ee6b/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/svg/dom/SVGViewElement-viewTarget-expected.txt
[delete] https://crrev.com/61c7f1e91089a5bacddd84777af3cd06c647ee6b/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/svg/dom/SVGViewElement-viewTarget.html
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/virtual/stable/webexposed/global-interface-listing-expected.txt
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/LayoutTests/webexposed/global-interface-listing-expected.txt
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/frame/Deprecation.cpp
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/frame/UseCounter.h
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/svg/SVGAttributeNames.in
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/svg/SVGViewElement.cpp
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/svg/SVGViewElement.h
[modify] https://crrev.com/335c071421e78b900d0108a7fa6e621fb2b9d941/third_party/WebKit/Source/core/svg/SVGViewElement.idl