From the moment I heard about Google Chrome Frame, the idea bothered me. Here is the situation:
- Many big companies still run IE 6
- These companies depend on legacy web apps that only work in IE 6
- Because so many companies are stuck on IE 6, everybody else has trouble moving forward with modern web sites
The Google Fix
Google Chrome Frame runs inside of IE. It allows IE users to access modern web sites, so long as those sites include this tag:
<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">
This is a clever workaround and is probably the best Google can do.
What Bothers Me
The workaround is backwards. It means 99% of your web usage remains stuck in old fashioned IE 6, treating modern web sites as special cases. Instead, I propose that Microsoft do exactly the opposite of what Google did.
Microsoft should create an IE 6 Frame. It would work like this:
- Everybody installs a modern web browser. IE 8, Chrome, Safari, Firefox, etc.
- Companies with ancient, mission critical IE 6 proprietary web sites could install the IE 6 Frame plugin.
- Most web sites would use the modern browser. Old web sites — ones that only work in IE 6 — would run in the IE 6 Frame plugin.
I believe this approach would be far more beneficial. You want the old crappy stuff to be the “special case” that runs in a plugin.