Google Chrome Frame is an IE6 plug-in that will render any html page (that contains a specific script tag in the page’s header) with the full majesty of the Google Chrome engine, giving the late browser adopters the chance to view some of the more advanced modern web pages in glorious standards compliant CSS3-o-vision. Unmodified pages, those without the script, would be left to be rendered in the savage wasteland that is Internet Explorer 6. This is great news for those users in corporate environments that still require IE6 to to function – but still want access to popular sites such as YouTube that are now starting to scale down their IE6 support.

Who actually *needs* IE6?

‘Why do so many corporations keep hold of such outdated software?’ you may ask. A lot of the usual reasons/myths are there – the perceived cost, outdated hardware that cannot support newer browsers; the majority, to be honest, wrong.

However, one viable reason is that a lot of companies are bound to various bought-in web-based management and customer support systems that simply cannot function in modern browsers. A large portion of software out there, developed at a time when the only viable browser choice was Microsoft, and tied into a plethora of MS-only components and controls, have not moved with the times and allowed for the next generation of browsers to work with their systems. Their solution? Only allow IE6 to be supported. The corporate sectors and their reticence to upgrade (in part due to restrictions imposed on them by their software suppliers) have been widely reported as one of the reasons for the longevity of IE6.

Having worked in IT departments in the past, I feel that I can speak on behalf of a goodly portion of them when I say that, by and large, most departments want to upgrade browsers. They might not necessarily care about standards compliant code and how it renders in relation to other browsers, but actively enjoy the extra security enhancements that newer browsers provide. They love the fact that the gaping maw of security loopholes can be plugged up in IE7 and 8. It makes their lives easier not having to clear up the mess that security exploits in IE6 leaves them susceptible to. They can’t get enough of that sh*t. It’s not the IT departments that are preventing the upgrades. Usually it’s because their hands are tied by the requirements of their software.

The Downside

If I have a concern, it’s that in my experience, some of the companies that have developed this software for IE6 alone, have a… failure to prioritise (yes, I’m putting that nicely). They’ve had 4 years –FOUR! – since the first announcement of IE7 to upgrade their software to allow for modern browsers, but instead have been… what? Tracking bugs? Adding more superfluous features into their mix in a bid to catch up with more progressive software houses? Putting their fingers in their ears and loudly shouting whenever anyone mentions the HTML5 spec?

Whatever it is, up until these last few days, there were quite a few development houses out there becoming more and more uncomfortable about the fact that their clients are starting to enquire about upgrading their outdated software. If they wanted to retain their business, they were going to have to look into spending some actual cash and look into upgrading the system wholesale. It wasn’t going to be easy. The software is a mish-mash of old ActiveX controls and outdated programming methods. The initial site developers have left and no-one knows how to use their impenetrable code.

With the news from Google, there’ll be a huge sigh of relief as they inform their tech support guy to tell their customers to install this virtual ‘get out of jail free’ card, oh, and whilst they’re at it, up the annual licensing costs as well, will you? Economic downfall and all that.

Google have come up with an excellent viable and workable option for allowing IT departments to have some way of allowing their users access to the corners of the web that IE6 wouldn’t go. They’ve also (‘incidentally’, I’m sure) found an excellent method of gaining access to a large portion of the market share that Firefox and the other browsers have no current chance of getting into. What they’ve also done, however, is give a quick and easy ‘out’ for lazy developers that have no business providing modern web software, and potentially extending the lifespan of many woefully inadequate web applications that should have died years ago.

Look at the web stats of IE6’s share of the market over the last few months. There’s a steady and noticeable drop there that I’d like to see continue – but I have a nasty suspicion that this may no longer be the case for a good while.

The one of the nicer problems in modern life these days is that there’s too much choice. Name a product and there are at least three alternatives vying for your attention with their respective thumbs stuck in different parts of the growth-share matrix. Hell, name anything and that’ll happen. Unless you’re naming American Banks*.

In a month where Google Chrome was released to the rapturous cries of “why?” from people that were perfectly happy with Firefox and maybe not so au fait with the underlying ideas of market forces and innovation, there is definately a case where a wide choice is very obviously a good thing.

Mobile phones — sorry, I’ll clarify that — Mobile SuperWebCameraMP3ColdFusionReactor phones are possibly one of the few exceptions right now. There’s technically choice out there to compete with the IPhone, but no matter how much they may protest, anyone that has a Blackberry or Prada phone will find their eyes slipping across to watch the bloke sitting next to them on the Tube playing Monkeyball on his Jobs machine.
In the short term, Apple are sorted. There is nothing realistically out there to ITouch the IPhone in terms of pure desirability — and if something more technically adept comes along, it’s going to have a struggle against HMS Apple and her Great Marketing Armada. But then there’s Google’s upcoming Android.

The first potential genuine competition to Apple is coming along soon, and to my mind is looking goooood. It does all the things I personally want from a SuperWebCameraMP3C… modern phone (I can’t be the only one that spent most of my time thinking “why do I want that?” on the IPhone specification), it isn’t trying to compete with the IPhone directly, but modifying the better ideas and running with them in their own direction. And like Chrome, this bad boy’s open source — letting any Rod, Jane or Freddy have a muck about with it and see what they can bring to the party.

THIS is competition! One company chasing another doesn’t help — it just increases the chance of running down a technological cul-de-sac. Companies going in different directions with the same basic premise can only be a good thing — mistakes made, lessons learned, cross fertilisation of ideas blah-de-blah — the product type as a whole benefits.

The IPhone isn’t the perfect phone for all users, neither is Android — the knowledge that someone somewhere else could be just about to come up with something better is what drives the innovation onwards and make the next generation that little bit better. Is Google/the Open Handset Alliance** primarily out to take over the IPhone’s market? I don’t think so — just like I don’t think Google are trying to take over Firefox’s share of the browser market with Chrome — but they’re making the right people try harder, and that’s surely going to be to the benefit of us all.

I’ve ended posts like this before, but as much as I try to properly understand Google’s underlying long term strategy, the more I think that they genuinely are out to make the future the one with all the rocket packs, hover cars and robot man-servants.
Just before they crack out the 20-Foot Destruct-o-bots with the web enabled Death Rays…

^{*Zing!
**Anyone else hope these guys all meet up in a space station hovering about the planet all wearing capes?}