Google Chrome Frame

Yesterday Google announced a new weapon in the fight against Internet Explorer, when they released the Google Chrome Frame. This is an Internet Explorer plugin which renders web pages using the Chrome/Webkit engine meaning technologies such as HTML 5 and a faster Javascript engine can work within Internet Explorer. It is compatible with the three main versions of Internet Explorer, and is currently in open beta.

This is just the latest tool in the fight to bring IE up to the levels of other browsers, although I wonder how much of an impact this will have on the web. I can certainly see how it might affect makers of web apps as it will help to bring a more consistent approach to their app if exactly the same features work in IE as the other browsers, and it will certainly save time in de-bugging IE but in terms of general websites I wonder how much of an impact it will have.

The biggest difference this will make is when used within IE6, but how many IE6 users will download this plugin. Home users who haven’t upgraded either aren’t aware that they can upgrade ordon’t know how, and if they haven’t upgraded their browser are they really going to download and install a plugin? I seriously doubt that they are, and although it’s easy to implement for all of us who build websites, I don’t think that it’s going to have a huge uptake amongst general web users. Corporate users of IE6 are probably still using that browser as they have no choice, and aren’t allowed to upgrade to anything else.

It will provide a useful tool to include in a site build to catch those users who do have the plugin installed, but it just feels generally like a solution that’s looking for a problem really.

What do you think about Google Chrome Frame? Good idea or bad?