Google released an early version of the Google Chrome Frame today. This is a plug-in for Internet Explorer, which lets the browser use HTML5 and…Google Wave (starting next week when the product’s preview is extended).
“We’re building Google Chrome Frame to help web developers deliver faster, richer applications like Google Wave. Recent JavaScript performance improvements and the emergence of HTML5 have enabled web applications to do things that could previously only be done by desktop software,” Google says on the Chromium blog. “One challenge developers face in using these new technologies is that they are not yet supported by Internet Explorer. Developers can’t afford to ignore IE — most people use some version of IE — so they end up spending lots of time implementing work-arounds or limiting the functionality of their apps.”
Google says it will encourage IE users to install Chrome Frame, once the Wave preview is extended, and IE users will see the following message when they login to Google Wave. Then they will be running Wave in a speed that equivalent to that of Google Chrome.
“Google Wave depends on strong JS and DOM rendering performance to provide a desktop-like experience in the browser. HTML5’s offline storage and web workers will enable us to add great features without having to compromise on performance,” says Google’s Wave Team. “Unfortunately, Internet Explorer, still used by the majority of the Web’s users, has not kept up with such fairly recent developments in Web technology. Compared with other browsers, the JavaScript performance is many times slower and HTML5 support is still far behind. Likewise, the many different versions of IE still in use — each with its own set of CSS quirks and layout limitations — further complicates building rich Web applications.”
If you have not yet gotten acquainted with HTML 5, Google has uploaded a 40-minute introduction to the technology to the Google Code YouTube Channel. You can view it below.
