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More and more web applications (including many from Google, such as Google Docs, Gmail, and MobileMe from Apple), either require these technologies, or make extensive use of JavaScript. As such, fast JavaScript support has recently become something of a game of cat and mouse between the top browser vendors, constantly leapfrogging one another to be ‘the fastest’. Internet Explorer, whilst receiving a big upgrade with version 8, is still some way behind Firefox, Safari, Opera, and Google Chrome when it comes to these features.

Google are soon to be launching their much-touted Google Wave service: a combination between e-mail, instant messaging, wikis, and social networking. Wave’s interface is very JavaScript-heavy, and requires features of HTML5. At present, this means that Internet Explorer users will be unable to use Wave. And even if Microsoft implemented the necessary features in the next version of IE, there are still around 40% of internet users on versions 6 and 7 of IE with no clear intention to upgrade any time soon (or, for many corporate users, they’re not even allowed to upgrade). It’s a big problem for Google if their ‘next generation of email’ isn’t able to be used by 60% of internet users.

Enter Google Chrome Frame.

Chrome Frame is a plugin for Internet Explorer versions 6, 7, and 8 – much like Flash or a PDF reader – which seamlessly allows Internet Explorer to use Google Chrome’s web technology support and fast JavaScript engine. Web developers simply need to add an HTML tag to their webpages, which will tell Internet Explorer to switch to using Chrome’s rendering engine for that site.

This is a fantastic solution to the issues outlined above for a number of reasons:

• For starters, the installation is a breeze – no more difficult than installing Flash, which most users have probably done without even noticing it.
• Other than the installation, there’s nothing for the end-user to do. Most websites will continue using Internet Explorer the same way they always have. If a site needs to use Chrome Frame, it all happens magically in the background, and is completely transparent to the user.
• There’s no need for IE users to have to install or learn an entire new browser. Again, they just keep using IE just as they did before.
• Finally, because the use of Chrome Frame is completely opt-in on a site-by-site basis, it doesn’t change everything and ‘break the internet’. Viewing sites that require new technologies is as simple as installing a plugin for your browser.

Initial tests by Computerworld have shown IE8 using Chrome Frame to be nearly 10 times faster than usual when processing JavaScript.

For more on Google Chrome Frame, take a look at this brilliant article from Jim Ray: http://jimray.tumblr.com/post/194793633/more-technical-details-about-google-chrome-frame