Internet Explorer, Now Powered by Google Chrome

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Though Internet Explorer has been panned for lack of web-standard compliance, many are forced to use the browser because of stubborn IT departments. Fortunately, Google has issued its latest "up yours" to Microsoft with the Chrome Frame plug-in for IE.

The Chrome Frame allows IE to use HTML5 and other open source technologies, including high performance JavaScript enhancements, that Internet Explorer's Trident Engine is unable to render. One of the largest barriers to the mass utilization of HTML5 was IE's lack of support for the standard. When people install the plug-in, and developers add a X-UA compatible tag, websites can have HTML5 elements without sacrificing losing a large segment of the potential user base. Without the X-UA tag, pages render normally using the Trident engine instead of the WebKit Chrome renderer.

One of the major advantages for Google in issuing the plug-in is ensuring IE compatibility for Google Wave. Users with the plug-in will also have the benefits of offline storage and utilization of the canvas tag. It's no secret that Google believes that the traditional desktop base is going the way of the dinosaur