Google Puts WebKit in IE

September 22nd, 2009

Google is releasing Chrome Frame, which embeds Chrome’s WebKit rendering engine in Internet Explorer.

It requires to install a plugin, and web developers to insert a short meta tag on pages they want rendered in WebKit. Basically, once the plugin is installed, Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 users have a — amazing! — modern web browser.

I don’t think this means much for home users still using IE6 (they are just as unlikely to install a plugin as download and switch to Safari, Firefox or Chrome), but as Paul Boag notes, this is a big deal for companies with restrictive IT departments that don’t allow employees to download other browsers, or with legacy (crappy) intranets that require IE6. They can install the plugin for all computers, still use their old intranet system, and be compatible with modern web applications and web sites. That’s a big deal.

(Via Jack Shedd.)