Google Chrome Frame - Now in Beta
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Web developers have been itching to develop with HTML5 but have been held back by legacy browsers. Google Chrome Frame can help break this impasse by allowing applications to target HTML5 on versions of Internet Explorer. Today, we’re excited to announce that Google Chrome Frame has graduated from Developer Preview into Beta.
Since our initial launch, we've been listening to developers: Instead of adding new bells and whistles, we've fixed more than 200 bugs to make integration with Internet Explorer seamless while improving security, stability, and performance. For example, we’ve improved our handling of Internet Explorer’s InPrivate browsing, cache clearing, and cookie blocking. All of the enhancements and features of Google Chrome 5.0 are available in Google Chrome Frame too, including HTML5 audio and video, canvas, geolocation, workers, and databases.
As we've worked on these improvements, we’ve been excited to see sites adopting Google Chrome Frame, including Meebo and all the blogs hosted by WordPress. In addition to our launch partner Google Wave, some other Google properties, including Orkut and YouTube are also relying on Google Chrome Frame to deliver HTML5 experiences to millions of users.
For those of you who want to develop HTML5 applications and deploy them broadly, we encourage you to give Google Chrome Frame a try. Existing users will be auto-updated to the beta, so if you downloaded Google Chrome Frame before, you’ll automatically get the new version. We’re also creating a new dev channel release, where you can try out the cutting-edge features we’re developing. For information on getting started with Google Chrome Frame, our project documentation is the place to start.
We’re always working hard to improve, so expect further enhancements and performance improvements in both the developer and beta versions in the coming weeks. You can help by giving us feedback and filing bugs, and we’ll have more to share in the days ahead.
12 comments:
willpeavy.net said...
Great work on the beta. Do you have any timelines or estimates about when it might be ready for release?
June 8, 2010 5:42 PM
Sasha Aickin said...
Many congrats! I've been looking forward to this for a while. The documentation says that printing is still not supported, but I think you said at I/O it was. Is that just something that needs to get cleaned up in the doc?
And seriously: I really think this has the potential to finally slay the IE6 dragon. If it does, the Internet will owe you a huge debt.
June 8, 2010 7:45 PM
Björn said...
Does wordpress.com prompt for installation of chrome frame, or does it only use it if available?
If some bigger sites like that prompted it would really drive adoption, and make me one happy web developer.
June 9, 2010 1:14 AM
willpeavy.net said...
@Bjorn - I just checked wordpress.com in IE8 and there was no prompt.
June 9, 2010 8:06 AM
nobody said...
This looks like a great solution for organizations and enterprises that need to continue to support IE as the main browser.
In the future, PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE release this as an MSI to make network-wide installation simple.
June 9, 2010 8:46 AM
CarlB said...
Ditto what nobody said. If you are targeting the enterprise then build MSI's.....
Or just make Chrome enterprise ready with MSI's and a way to centrally manage and configure it.
June 9, 2010 9:01 AM
Przemysław Lib said...
So WebM will find its native support in IE thanks to Google Frame ?
June 9, 2010 9:56 AM
Daniel said...
An MSI is supposedly in the works, hopefully it will be released soon. Even a beta MSI (installer only, no remote management) would be better than nothing at this point. I'm tired of spending 20%+ more time just tweaking for IE on our local intranet site.
June 9, 2010 4:16 PM
Vikiwar said...
Would be nice if the "Google Chrome Frame" could somehow integrate the "Chrome Web Store".
June 10, 2010 3:17 AM
s.gopal said...
Can you pls mention the version number in the blog post announcement or in the download page.
It is very difficult to know if we have the latest version. This applies to all your products.
June 10, 2010 11:09 PM
Bruce said...
When will you support MRU CTRL-TAB? Sooo many people plead for it. Even if it's not the default behavior, please make it an option.
June 13, 2010 10:38 PM
s.gopal said...
What is the latest version for chrome frame. Can u provide this info in your posts.
June 27, 2010 11:58 PM
Post a Comment