Slashdot Mirror


Google Updates Chrome Frame, Makes IE Better

superapecommando writes "Google updated Chrome Frame, a plugin that embeds the company's Chrome browser engine into rival Microsoft's Internet Explorer, to a beta version. As it did last year, Google cast Chrome Frame today as a way for IE users to instantly boost the notoriously slow JavaScript speed of their browser and let them access sites and web applications that rely on standards that IE doesn't support, primarily HTML5."

15 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. Aww ... by Stooshie · · Score: 4, Funny

    This was going to be first post but I was using IE.

    --
    America, Home of the Brave. ... .and the Squaw.
  2. Re:So... by Ed+Avis · · Score: 5, Funny

    Does Chrome Frame run inside IE Tab in Firefox?

    --
    -- Ed Avis ed@membled.com
  3. Re:So... by eldavojohn · · Score: 4, Interesting

    On a more serious note, why embed one browser into another? Why not just install the other browser?

    I can think of a few reasons. Say you're on a corporate network that only allows IE as the system is entirely managed remotely. Maybe they allow plugins for IE in the profiles or maybe they want to switch to HTML5 but the people that manage their software are too unsure of doing a full browser like Chrome that might not have the same managing options for proxies and stuff that IE allows them to control over a network. Or maybe you're a user and you find out you can install Chrome Frame and it looks like you're still using IE so everyone's okay with it.

    Another big thing is look and feel. I think that Chrome Frame keeps IE's look and feel. So if my mother is slow to learn new applications and she is so used to IE's look and feel but I want her to be more secure and enjoy HTML5 pages without having to worry about which browser she's using or try to learn Chrome than Chrome Frame might be an option for her.

    --
    My work here is dung.
  4. Software Restriction Policies by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    Even with installation restrictions, there are 'portable' versions of alternative browsers.

    The restrictions go deeper. Have you ever run into a Unix system where all end-user-writable directories (including /home and /media) were mounted noexec for security purposes? Windows has a similar feature, called Software Restriction Policies, which can deny execution of a program based on folder location (as in Linux) or based on lack of the IT department's digital signature.

  5. Re:HTML5 is no standard by tepples · · Score: 2, Informative

    Javascript in IE is hardly 'notoriously' slow

    It's slow enough that web developers have to work around IE's slow JavaScript engine and lack of other features useful to web applications by making web applications significantly less sophisticated.

    (yeah I'm sure some faggoty benchmark with no real-world value 'proves' it)

    Every new web technology is implemented in "some faggoty benchmark with no [apparent] real-world value" before it gets implemented in an ad-supported or subscription-supported web site. The main reason that HTML5 technologies aren't used on more publicly accessible web sites is because 53 percent of the audience is still using IE.

  6. Re:So... by Tom · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Another big thing is look and feel. I think that Chrome Frame keeps IE's look and feel. So if my mother is slow to learn new applications and she is so used to IE's look and feel but I want her to be more secure and enjoy HTML5 pages without having to worry about which browser she's using or try to learn Chrome than Chrome Frame might be an option for her.

    I'm pretty convinced your mother is not really that slow to learn new applications. What she is slow at is adapting to crappy interfaces, which are by and large the standard. We techies have learned to work our way around what is actually a horrible mess and major obstacle to getting any work done - most non-techies haven't. They actually notice just how bad the interface is.

    Case in point: Things like the iPad, which were designed with a good user-interface in mind, specifically for non-technical people as the target audience, don't seem to suffer from the "slow to learn" problem.

    --
    Assorted stuff I do sometimes: Lemuria.org
  7. Re:So... by robmv · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Because many popular non IE browsers are very difficult to manage on a Windows network environment, not impossible but requires a lot of work and experienced windows admin (something everyone claims to be on their CV but they are not). IE has nice policies to set centrally.

    Firefox (default with no additional AD integration extension) needs .dat files added to the installation directory, you need to code javascript to do anything user related and not globally to every user on that workstation.

    Chrome is the worst, it install on %LOCAL_APPDATA%, not globally, so each user need their own copy (WTF Google %APPDATA% is for data not binaries)

    No experience with Opera on enterprise installations

  8. Chromium Blog URL by IYagami · · Score: 2, Informative

    http://blog.chromium.org/2010/06/google-chrome-frame-now-in-beta.html

    Google Chrome Frame - Now in Beta
    Tuesday, June 08, 2010
    Web developers have been itching to develop with HTML5 but have been held back by legacy browsers. Google Chrome Frame can help break this impasse by allowing applications to target HTML5 on versions of Internet Explorer. Today, we're excited to announce that Google Chrome Frame has graduated from Developer Preview into Beta.

    Since our initial launch, we've been listening to developers: Instead of adding new bells and whistles, we've fixed more than 200 bugs to make integration with Internet Explorer seamless while improving security, stability, and performance. For example, we've improved our handling of Internet Explorer's InPrivate browsing, cache clearing, and cookie blocking. All of the enhancements and features of Google Chrome 5.0 are available in Google Chrome Frame too, including HTML5 audio and video, canvas, geolocation, workers, and databases.

    As we've worked on these improvements, we've been excited to see sites adopting Google Chrome Frame, including Meebo and all the blogs hosted by WordPress. In addition to our launch partner Google Wave, some other Google properties, including Orkut and YouTube are also relying on Google Chrome Frame to deliver HTML5 experiences to millions of users.

    For those of you who want to develop HTML5 applications and deploy them broadly, we encourage you to give Google Chrome Frame a try. Existing users will be auto-updated to the beta, so if you downloaded Google Chrome Frame before, you'll automatically get the new version. We're also creating a new dev channel release, where you can try out the cutting-edge features we're developing. For information on getting started with Google Chrome Frame, our project documentation is the place to start.

    We're always working hard to improve, so expect further enhancements and performance improvements in both the developer and beta versions in the coming weeks. You can help by giving us feedback and filing bugs, and we'll have more to share in the days ahead.

    Posted by Amit Joshi, Software Engineer, and Alex Russell, Software Engineer

  9. Yo dawg... by Galestar · · Score: 5, Funny

    I heard you like webpages, so we put a browser in your browser so you can browse while you browse

    --
    AccountKiller
  10. Re:So We're All in Agreement Then? by Rockoon · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I understand you have to be security and performance minded and that there are some issues with codecs and containers but aside from that is rendering HTML5 standards really that complicated?

    Before they are agreed upon, yes.. its really hard to render them.

    --
    "His name was James Damore."
  11. Re:So... by Monkeedude1212 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    BAM. You hit the nail so hard on the head it went through the 2 by 4.

    We're a small to medium sized company. We push out various proxy settings for different people using IE so that we can actively log what people are browsing without pushing them through a single point of failure. Being able to update people's proxy settings via active directory groups makes it a seemless experience so no one has to run around to 200 computers and change them all.

    But the bigger issue is... bumbumbumduuuummm... Web Apps! Any Custom Web App built by our company for either ourselves or our clients is 100% designed for IE. We don't have the time or resources to test other browsers for bugs or glitches, nor to deal with them as they come up. So we develop for IE. IE is that target. Now, I don't know if the Chrome Frame is going to mess with that, we generally keep browser addons to a minimum around here. But so long as it doesn't dramaticly alter the display or functionality of the code we write, I think it'd be A-OK.

  12. Re:So... by M.+Baranczak · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Any Custom Web App built by our company for either ourselves or our clients is 100% designed for IE.

    Well, there's your problem right there.

  13. Remember the old 'Embrace and Extend'? by dreamchaser · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I wonder how Microsoft likes being played at its own 'Embrace and Extend' game ;)

  14. Re:Other WebKit browsers by Darkness404 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    But do all of them also use V8?

    --
    Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
  15. Re:HTML5 is not a standard yet - it is in dev by Rovastar · · Score: 3, Insightful

    So they are apps designed for a browser platform specfic implementation of a dev version of HTML5. Hardly standards like what was implied........