Benefits and concerns with Google Chrome Frame

Is this a technology I should spend much time evaluating?

http://code.google.com/chrome/chromeframe/

Chrome Frame is a plugin for Internet Explorer (IE6-IE8) that gives it, well, what all the other major browsers have.

Biggies for me are the Canvas tag and a fast JavaScript.

As I do a lot of JavaScript dataset visualization, IE6 is a perpetual thorn in my side, and I often have to write extra code for it, and I often have to slow down the frame rate of user-driven real-time visualizations. Using Google Chrome Frame will allow me to produce a much more responsive experience for IE6 users.

But I wonder if IE6 users may be in situations where their computers are under some kind of IT lockdown hell where they aren't even allowed to install a plugin (why else would they be using IE6?)

So I'd still be left with what to do with the last poor souls in IE6.

Still, IE8 lacks Canvas and the JavaScript is slow, so some of my users would see increased performance, maybe even up to Google Chrome and Safari levels.

So again, my real question: Is this a technology I should spend time evaluating?

Note: Google will be throwing up alerts to IE users to encourage them to download Google Chrome Frame for Google Wave. So maybe Google will get enough Google Chrome Frames out there on IE machines that I can just detect it and use it if it's there, and warn the user that experience may suffer without it. I hate to demand anything of my user. http://googlewavedev.blogspot.com/2009/09/google-wave-in-internet-explorer.html

Solution

Given the visualizations you're working on, I'd definitely evaluate it. The potential upside for you as a developer and for your users is significant. You do not have to force all Internet Explorer users to use Chrome Frame. You can simply include the meta tag and the users that choose to install the plugin will almost certainly have a better experience.

That said, in my evaluation of Chrome Frame I have encountered some pretty big caveats that might be showstoppers for your project:

Older versions Chrome Frame can't print (see bug list). Depending on what kind of visualizations you're doing, this might be a real deal killer.
Downloads work but appear to the user like nothing has happened (see bug list again).
Chrome Frame is basically the Google Chrome browser shoehorned into the IE browser chrome. As such, any interaction with the browser inside the frame is with Chrome, not IE. If you right click and select Inspect Element you will get the Chrome developer tools window with its Vista-like look and feel. You'll need to make a judgment call as to whether your users will be comfortable with that.
In my testing, it appears like Chrome Frame is only looking at the meta tag:

<meta http-equiv="X-UA-Compatible" content="chrome=1">

I was unable to get Chrome Frame to activate by setting the X-UA-Compatible HTTP Header as you would with EmulateIE7 mode:
```
Header set X-UA-Compatible "chrome=1"
```
It is also worth noting that this meta tag will override EmulateIE7 mode if you have that setting configured and I believe the inverse is also true too. They are both setting X-UA-Compatible. The last tag to set this will take precedence.

One power testing tip that will help save you from having to go in and edit your pages, is that you don't have to do anything to your site to test it with Chrome Frame. Once you have the Chrome Frame plugin installed in IE, simply prepend gcf: to the any URL and it will load it in Chrome Frame (e.g. gcf:http://dshaw.com ).

Happy coding,

- @dshaw