Shocker: Microsoft Doesn’t Like Google’s Internet Explorer Killer

href="http://api.tweetmeme.com/share?url=http://mashable.com/2009/09/24/google-chrome-frame-ie/&service=bit.ly"> width="51" height="61" src="http://api.tweetmeme.com/imagebutton.gif?url=http://mashable.com/2009/09/24/google-chrome-frame-ie/" align="right"/>

class="alignright size-full wp-image-148580" title="chromeframe-cw" src="http://mashable.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/chromeframe-cw.jpg" alt="chromeframe-cw" width="260" height="190" />On Tuesday, Google launched its latest href="http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/google-chrome-frame/">IE killer, the href="http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/" >Google Chrome Frame. The Google Chrome Frame is a plugin that users of Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8 that, once installed, basically replaces IE’s rendering engine and JavaScript engine with the technologies used in Google Chrome.

The results can be pretty spectacular; for JavaScript performance alone, users can get up to href="http://news.techworld.com/networking/3202572/internet-explorer-8-runs-ten-times-faster-with-google-chrome-plug-in/" >10x the performance. The Google Chrome Frame also lets users view web pages with CSS3 or HTML5. Unsurprisingly, Microsoft isn’t happy about the development and is urging users not to install the plugin, claiming it makes them href="http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/microsoft-google-chrome-frame-makes-ie-less-secure.ars" >less secure.

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Here is what Microsoft told href="http://arstechnica.com/microsoft/news/2009/09/microsoft-google-chrome-frame-makes-ie-less-secure.ars" >Ars Technica:

“Given the security issues with plugins in general and Google Chrome in particular, Google Chrome Frame running as a plugin has doubled the attach area for malware and malicious scripts. This is not a risk we would recommend our friends and families take”

We think Microsoft is being a little dramatic. Although plugins can pose security risks because they add one more exploitable area for malware to break free, the way the Google Chrome Frame actually works doesn’t appear to have any negative impacts on browser security.

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Chrome Frame’s Limited Impact on IE Security

/>As developer href="http://jimray.tumblr.com/post/194793633/more-technical-details-about-google-chrome-frame" >Jim Ray details, Google implements the Google Chrome Frame using a Browser Helper Object, or BHO. This was a protocol originally introduced back in the IE 4 era during the first browser wars.

Although BHOs had security holes and were often used as a way to install malware (mostly through the use of customized toolbars that popped up on your PC after downloading some piece of software and then took forever to actually remove), with IE 6 SP2, Microsoft started sandboxing BHOs — that is, keeping them separate from the rest of the browser.

So BHOs are now sandboxed, reducing the security threat they pose. Google also uses its own href="http://groups.google.com/group/google-chrome-frame/browse_thread/thread/96826f25ac27b2e3" >sandbox to secure the Google Chrome Frame and keep things contained.

Although I’ll concede that Microsoft has done a good job on the security front with Internet Explorer 8, IE8 users aren’t really the target audience for the Google Chrome Frame. The Google Chrome Frame has the most potential for users (most likely in the business setting) who still have to use IE6 for compatibility reasons for internal applications, but would like to have a better overall browsing experience on other sites (or for href="http://mashable.com/2009/09/22/google-wave-internet-explorer/">accessing Google Wave).

Have you tried the Google Chrome Frame? What do you think about what Google is doing? Let us know in the comments.

/>Reviews: href="http://www.blippr.com/apps/336661-Google" >Google, href="http://www.blippr.com/apps/337389-Google-Chrome" >Google Chrome, href="http://www.blippr.com/apps/336748-Internet-Explorer" >Internet Explorer

Tags: href="http://mashable.com/tag/google-chrome/">google chrome, href="http://mashable.com/tag/google-chrome-frame/">google chrome frame, href="http://mashable.com/tag/internet-explorer/">internet explorer

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