I was really excited when I read about Google Chrome Frame yesterday.  Its a browser plug-in for Internet Explorer that replaces the internals with that of Google Chrome, a much more modern browser that supports recent web standards and generally just works.

IE is notorious for rendering pages improperly and not supporting new web standards which basically require web developers to apply special hacks or design sites specifically for IE.

Google Chrome Frame is interesting because the user doesn’t need to seek out and install google chrome frame.  If these people were interested in seeking out new software they probably wouldn’t be using IE6 in the first place.  Instead, website authors can include a few lines of code that prompts users of IE to install the Google Chrome Frame plugin.

I set up a chrome frame test page with the google chome embed and lots of elements that don’t work well in IE6.  and had a friend of mine who works for a very large bank where their computers are locked down to only using IE6 try visiting the page. I was hoping that somehow Google Chrome Frame would be allowed to install itself. 

IE6 recently turned 8 which is about 4000 in internet years (its true, freshbooks claims 2007 was 1000 years ago). Its pretty neat that so many corporate users are relying on a web browser that is actually an antique.

Here are some screenshots from the failed process:

Google Chrome Frame asking if it can be installed. Sounds good.

The terms look good.

Lets run this

Nope. Close, but no chrome cigar.