Update: One of the arguments surfacing from people, notably Mitchell Baker (the former CEO of the Mozilla Foundation), is that Chrome Frame segregates the browser from the engine. They claim that this will result in the rendering engine storing information in one location, while the browser stores it in another. I’ve been using Chrome Frame of late in IE6, and quite frankly, it appears to me that locally stored information (passwords, security settings, etc) are all managed from the browser. The rendering engine is just that… a rendering engine. A powerhouse that the browser hooks into and does things with. The browser rendering engine merely renders the output of what is given. If there are stored credentials, it pulls them from the browser framework. I think Mitchell Baker’s quotes are misleading.
As you may have heard, Google announced an alpha release of a new plugin for Internet Explorer last week, called Chrome Frame. This announcement stunned me personally, as it changes the concept of compatibility for web developers. Web developers no longer need to necessarily code for the limitations of IE6/IE7. Now they have the option of coding strictly for standards compliancy, as well as taking advantage of HTML 5 features, no matter what browser the end user is using.
This marks a huge turning point in web development. No longer does a web developer have to worry about which browser an end user is using. It is no longer the browser that determines the features on the clientside. The focus has shifted to the rendering engine. Apple has been really pushing this focus for a while with WebKit (the rendering engine in Safari), but Google has now given it the last push. Which rendering engine is currently being used is transparent to the end user. This means that developers are now in control of their applications and sites.
Control. Not only are developers in control of their web apps and sites, but because the Chrome rendering engine is open source, developers as a whole have now been given control over the web. As new features are developed and implemented into the Chrome Frame rendering engine, everyone with the plugin installed will get the updates/new features. I suspect that we’re about to see a large increase in the pace of web development.
I believe that Google will implement a similar plugin for Firefox and/or Safari. The centralization of a single rendering engine must be one of their priorities. (something all web developers would likely support)
Google’s implementation is absolutely beautiful. Transparently transitioning the end user to a fast, standards compliant browsing experience is going to make a lot of developers and end users extremely happy. The fact that they did it using legitmate methods only makes it that much more beautiful.
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below.
Related posts:
Tags: browser, Chrome, Chrome Frame, Google