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Google Frame borgs IE with Webkit
Matt Lincoln Russell
September 24, 2009 4:46 PM ET in Tech
Google announced on Tuesday the beta release of a plugin which makes major changes to Microsoft’s competing Internet Explorer browser.
Titled Google Frame, it completely replaces IE’s web rendering engine with that of Chrome’s. The result is a faster, more standards-compliant experience even in the antique Internet Explorer 6.
Many web developers are loathe to require that users upgrade their browser (because most simply can’t), but Google theorizes that the low barrier to entry of a plugin might spur IT departments to adopt it as they have with Adobe’s Flash.
Meanwhile, MSNBC Editorial Concepts Producer Jim Ray has written a glowing review which documents the technical details of Google’s work:
The irony here, as I see it, is that an old, insecure feature Microsoft built to try to beat Netscape is now being used by Microsoft’s biggest current rival to patch IE. The upside for developers is that Microsoft is going to have a hard time killing Chrome Frame because it actually does the right thing — it’s not hacking IE via undocumented APIs or unscrupulous haxie-like code injection. They used Microsoft’s own well-documented and fully supported platform to do this. Bravo indeed, Google.
We can’t deny that this news fills us with a bit of smug satisfaction, but we question the utility of requiring all IE users (or merely IE6 users) to install a plugin before using your site. While Flash has made significant inroads in this area over the years, we wonder if there is enough incentive before larger websites pave the way.
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