Use Google Chrome Within Your Current Browser

Earlier this week, Google released a beta version of Google Chrome Frame which allows users to run Google Chrome within another browser. Originally, Google targeted users of Internet Explorer, which lacks support for HTML5 and other new web technologies. All developers have to do is include one line of code:

<meta http-equiv=”X-UA-Compatible” content=”chrome=1″>

and if the user has Chrome Frame installed, the browser will use Chrome’s rendering engine to display the page. This way, users will be able to take advantage of modern web technologies even if they use an older browser. In a post today, Google has also announced that Chrome Frame can be used with browser other than Internet Explorer, such as Firefox, Safari, Opera and other browsers that support NPAPI.

I doubt that the plugin will see much adoption by users of outdated browsers, if they don’t install an update for their browser I doubt that they will install a plugin. Also, people are not using Internet Explorer 6 because they prefer it over the latest browsers, but because they do not see a reason to update, do not know there are updates or cannot update. It may, however, see greater adoption from users who want to take advantage of Chrome’s often-hailed fast rendering engine, but would prefer to continue using their current, up-to-date browsers.

[Image from flickr.com/photos/randyzhang – CC BY-SA 2.0]