So, I initially greeted Google Chrome Frame with some skepticism. It’s not very often that something comes along these days that truly revolutionises the ecosystem for us web designers, but I really thing this could be it.

My reasons are these.

1. Google did it.

Had Microsoft done it, it would have been complicated. In fact, it’s unlikely it would ever have crossed their minds to do it. The idea of rendering engine portability is one I remember talking to people about a few years ago, but of course I wasn’t technically minded enough to understand what that might involve, just that it would be really nice and potentially solve some future issues if your browser rendered with an engine hosted online (and that could be updated silently).

Well, this isn’t quite that, but it uses a quite similar principle.

And the really massive thing is, despite what Microsoft says about it’s security - the remaining home users using IE6* are not concerned about security, or are they likely to install updates or read Microsoft’s blog. What they are likely to do however, is to visit google.com.

So imagine if Google made the decision to request the plugin install every time you visited google.com?

OK, perhaps a little underhand, but with some (IE) browser targeting, it’s not beyond them. They’re going to be doing it with YouTube, so why not with their main search? It doesn’t make sense not to capitalise on this. You already get an advert asking you if you want to download Chrome itself, but with a little well written copy or a plugin download request on the homepage, Google could potentially bite a huge chunk out of the IE6/7 and even 8 share. I’m not thinking they’d deny anyone access to their own site, but they might start really pushing it.

I really think if this takes off, Google will determine the end of IE6’s life, not Microsoft. And that could be very humiliating - and liberating.

2. It’s not a beta.

Quite amazingly for this day and age, a piece of software that isn’t launched in ‘beta’. Google have gone out of their way to say this. That means, it is ready to deploy today (whether it actually performs like a beta is another matter entirely, but for marketing purposes… very shrewd).

3. We’re ready to push forward.

I don’t think it’s jumping the gun to say that HTML5 and CSS3 are now rolling stones. I’ve said for a long while that we should expect a second wave of hyper-activity soon (I class the first wave as the valid/semantic code switch, which lasted 2-3 years and is now almost entirely washed out). It’s not happened quite yet, and the reason has most certainly been the browser limitations. IE6 has been the sticking point for months now and although is still fading, still must be considered in most cases.

Clearly the industry has been baying for the next big shift; by nature we love to explore new territory, but at the moment there is all this potential building up, but no way to release it. It’s like the dam has a few holes in it, but really we’re still stuck behind it.

IE7/8 is soon to become the annoyance. If you’re thinking “all my sites look fine in IE7/8, so I really don’t think it’ll be an issue”, just remember that if we have another big boom of activity now as it appears we will, most of the HTML5/CSS3 stuff won’t be possible in either of these browsers, and without a solution like Chrome, we will be bemoaning them for years.

Conclusion

So my conclusion is this. We were heading for the edge of the waterfall anyway. If Google uses it’s savvy and does push Chrome frame as a ‘requirement’ or otherwise throughout it’s primary products, it’s going to speed things up tenfold. I had estimated that we’d be in full swing of a HTML5/CSS3 revolution within 18 months to 2 years. I now think it has the potential to be much, much sooner.

* Commercial users will be last to ditch IE6 for a variety of reasons, but essentially Chrome Frame offers a get out clause. Some will take it, some won’t. But it doesn’t matter. The pressure will only really mount on these businesses to upgrade when they discover they cannot use/do any of the new stuff possible with the new technologies. The web industry needs to move forward before these remaining businesses will ever move themselves. It’s like trying to explain the benefits of Twitter without a demonstration.

 

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