Google Chrome Frame Officially Released

With the beta label removed, users of Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8 now have a stable way to experience modern browsing without embracing IE 9.

Thomas Claburn, Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

September 22, 2010

2 Min Read
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Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta Revealed

Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta Revealed


Microsoft Internet Explorer 9 Beta Revealed(click image for larger view and for full photo gallery)

Google on Wednesday removed the beta label from Google Chrome Frame, a browser plug-in that brings HTML5 capabilities to Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, 7, and 8.

Introduced last year as a developer preview, Google Chrome Frame turns Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8 into a "modern browser," to use the term favored by Google. It allows users of older versions of IE, or those on Windows XP, which won't run IE 9, can enjoy Web sites and Web applications that take advantage of HTML5 elements like the canvas tag and geolocation.

In order to take advantage of Chrome Frame, Web sites must employ a meta tag using the X-UA-Compatible header.

Beyond being a way to paint Microsoft as a technological laggard, Chrome Frame was intended to be a way to allow the large number of IE users to experience sophisticated Web applications like Google Wave without forcing Google to develop and maintain IE-specific code.

Though Wave has been shuttered, Chrome Frame still has value as a way to help Google make its other Web applications more accessible, particularly to business users, many of whom are stuck with older versions of IE.

The blog post announcing Google Chrome Frame's exit from beta makes it clear that Google is targeting corporate IE users. "If you're an IT administrator, we've also posted an MSI installer for deploying Google Chrome Frame in your network," state Google software engineers Tomas Gunnarsson and Robert Shield.

Gunnarsson and Shield add that Google plans to continue improving Chrome Frame and that release cycles for the software will be accelerated to match the Google Chrome release cycle.

About the Author

Thomas Claburn

Editor at Large, Enterprise Mobility

Thomas Claburn has been writing about business and technology since 1996, for publications such as New Architect, PC Computing, InformationWeek, Salon, Wired, and Ziff Davis Smart Business. Before that, he worked in film and television, having earned a not particularly useful master's degree in film production. He wrote the original treatment for 3DO's Killing Time, a short story that appeared in On Spec, and the screenplay for an independent film called The Hanged Man, which he would later direct. He's the author of a science fiction novel, Reflecting Fires, and a sadly neglected blog, Lot 49. His iPhone game, Blocfall, is available through the iTunes App Store. His wife is a talented jazz singer; he does not sing, which is for the best.

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