Big news in the web-development world. Could Chrome Frame be the death knoll of IE6?
The primary company I work for has an old style Java app that was designed specifically for IE6. It has since been opened up to Firefox as well, but other browsers are still locked out. In one sense I am excited about Chrome Frame because it might mean we get to drop official support for IE6 sooner. In another sense I feel like Google might be playing a dirty underhanded trick to force sites that support IE to also support Chrome.
The scenario I envision goes like this: A unsuspecting and not-so-tech-savvy person is prompted on some site far far away to install the Chrome Frame plugin for IE. Seems innocent enough, so they do, and it works! all is well. Then at some point not so long after that they sign in to our application with no problem. Our browser sniffer doesn’t see anything amiss, just another IE user. Then potentially things start not working like they are used to. (i don’t know if this would happen, we don’t test Chrome/webkit since we don’t support it…). they get stuck enough or frustrated enough that they call our support staff for help, and after some time spent trying to understand what is happening we have to say either, “sorry, we don’t support IE with plugins like that,” or, “sorry, that is a bug and we need to fix it.” Both options make us look bad to paying customers.
Google’s motivations supposedly include making life easy for developers, and I think for the most part Chrome Frame will achieve that. It is just one more reason that I won’t bother to test/support old IE browsers a number of sites I work on. However, I think the whole, “we want to help developers”, and, “we want to advance the web” is more marketing spin. Not to say it’s untrue that they want those things too, but Google is a company and companies usually have less altruistic motives.
Because of Google Frame companies like the one I work for are now forced to consider if we will support Chrome. That means for companies who have sites that were built specifically for IE, life just got harder. Ultimately supporting Chrome would be a good thing since it would basically mean a much more standards compliant site – something that is definitely one of the companies goals. The answer to the question, ‘should we support Chrome?’ should be yes, It already was in fact, but before it was less of a priority. The benefit that Google gets for pushing this shift of priorities is that the one more hurdle to Chrome gaining browser share is dismantled. Greater market share in their browser arena means a more prominent platform for their services, and that affects the bottom line. This perspective makes Google seem less likable to me. On the other hand, Google really is advancing web standards which opens the doors that much wider to any other standards compliant browsers, and I do like that…
So Google made a move that might help their bottom line, and “tricks” people who are using browsers from the dinosaur age of the internet, which even Microsoft encourages people not to use.
Companies that designed sites and apps specifically for IE are going to get what’s coming to them. The only question is when. Better get it over with and move on, no?
I say that with a little bit of glee- I was using Firefox when it was called Phoenix (FF 0.4?) and suffered through way too many “Sorry, your browser is unsupported” messages. And helping people out who got malware by simply surfing the web.
Just to clarify I am no fan of Internet Explorer. Moving on to better browsers and more standards compliant code would be a good idea, but if people want to use a dinosaur age browser with sites they designed to work with that software that is their choice. Microsoft encourages people to upgrade, but they make the right move in leaving that choice up to users, and not not breaking the functionality of their old software. Google did some awesome stuff with pushing web standard and setting the bar high for the latest browser wars. I think they may have overstepped a bit. It is a matter of perspective though. Some people are going to say Chrome Frame broke IE others are going to say it fixed it.
Google has announced that Google Wave will not be supported for IE 6,7, or 8. I think Chrome Frame was developed so they would have to waste so much time tweaking Google Wave to work in IE.
Also, even if Chrome Frame is installed I am not certain that it runs on every page. According to Google Code page for Chrome Frame to work you have to include a meta tag on the page.
Good point about Google Wave factoring into their motivation. Hadn’t thought about that. I am surprised they’re not even going to support IE8 though.
You’re also right about Chrome Frame being per page opt in, I had misunderstood that. That pretty much negates what I wrote regarding Google pulling a dirty trick. So I guess there isn’t much more to say. Thanks Google!