Google recently announced Chrome Frame, a plug-in which is being touted as nothing short of an IE killer. 

Can A Plug-in Really Kill A Browser?

In a way, it might. Chrome Frame is a clever little plug-in which essentially sidesteps IE's rendering engine, Trident, in favour of Chrome's rendering engine, Webkit. This gives better HTML5 and CSS3 support as well as a faster JavaScript* runtime than IE's native rendering engine. So provided that enough users download the plug-in, which may be easier said than done, then the plug-in may be successful in killing off Trident at least.

Is It A Good Idea?

Well in my opinion, no, it is a bad idea. What is to stop other browsers from doing the same? It certainly can't be expected that Microsoft will take this lying down, not to mention Mozilla who have already started legal proceedings against Microsoft on the grounds of anti-competitiveness in the browser market. I see this going one of two ways. The first, is that someone, somewhere, don't ask me who, is going to step in and say this is not allowed or on the other hand, this could spark another browser war with each company writing it's own plug-in to sidestep the native rendering engine. The latter outcome is a bit apocalyptic and admittedly unlikely to happen.

But What If It Did Happen?

Let's suppose for a minute there was another browser war and that it was fought in the same way that I have prophetically predicted. What lesson would be learned? We would learn that a user chooses their browser for the interface and features. Web developers chose Firefox for it's add-on's, Joe Bloggs chooses IE because it's all he's known, Mac users chose safari because it's shiny. That is very stereotypical but it serves to highlight what I believe to be the way forward for browser development. The innovation should be in the browser interface and features and not in the browser's interpretation of web standards. What is really needed is a standard rendering engine controlled by a body with no ties to any browser. The browser would then be free to innovate in the interface and feature set.

Although I don't personally believe Chrome Frame to be the way forward, I eagerly await the discussion it will generate regarding browser development, not to mention the guaranteed backlash from Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple and Opera. I think the response from Mozilla in particular will be one to watch. At this time Chrome Frame poses no threat to Mozilla, but if Mozilla sticks to it's principles it should voice concerns about the anti-competitive issues Chrome Frame creates for Microsoft. However, it is unlikely that Mozilla will be willing to side with Microsoft on this one, even though Chrome Frame may also pose a threat to Mozilla if it were to be ported to Firefox.

* technically IE uses JScript which, as per, is it's own interpretation of the language.