So Google are bringing out their plugin that makes IE act... well... less like IE and more like the others. It is called the Google Chrome Frame. So the positive of this is definitely that html5 and other coolness will now be able to be used in the old explorer. This is awesome for a number of reasons. Firstly it will open IE people up to a whole load of new features that they’ve never been able to access before. The second major plus is that developers can develop with a bit more freedom and spend less time worrying and more importantly coding for IE.

So here’s how it is all supposed to work. The IE users install the plugin on their side. Developers insert the following tag into their head:

The frame detects this tag and switches to Google Chromes Webkit based engine.

This is all awesome until one thinks of what is happening in the web world at the moment. More importantly, how the average joe uses their computer. The biggest drawback to the Google Chrome Frame is the fact that it is the user that has to install the plugin. Most people who use IE, especially IE6 fall into these 2 categories:

1. People who don’t know anything about browsers and consequently never upgrade.
2. People who are forced to use it as their IT support at work doesn’t want to upgrade.

This presents us with the problem that although there is a workaround to the IE problem will anyone actually do it? More to the point why would they install a plugin as opposed to upgrading to a less crappy browser? If we are realistic the people that really care about all of this stuff don’t use IE and the rest for the most part either don’t care or don’t know how to upgrade. So until IE disappears developers will still have to cater for IE in their projects anyway.

Those are my thoughts on this subject. Let me know what you think. A general overview of the plugin can be found here.