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Chrome Frame is an add-on for Internet Explorer that brings advanced browsing functionality and support for open web standards to Internet Explorer. More specifically, Chrome Frame allows Internet Explorer to render HTML5 just like it would on Google Chrome.
Chrome Frame is possibly the most unobtrusive add-on I’ve ever seen. Once installed, it just works — there is no need for you to do anything. When you visit a website that supports Chrome Frame, Chrome Frame automatically goes into action. In fact it was difficult to get a screen shot for you because it it is hard to tell the different between just IE and IE with Chrome Frame — there’s no flashy button on your bar, and no special settings to set up or change once it’s been installed. In fact, if it’s working properly you’ll never know it’s there.
In order to grab a screenshot for you with the only real proof, I had to find an HTML5 website, and right click in the window. In non-HTML5 websites, that little “About Chrome Frame” button doesn’t exist in your context menu. And the add-on itself might as well not exist, too, since it only activates when you view a website using HTML5, and at all other times is essentially dormant within IE. As a test, I uninstalled the add-on and checked out the same website again. It turned out to be a mess in IE without Chrome Frame — paragraph breaks weren’t done properly, some of the bold and italics didn’t seem to work the right way, and the spacing on the page was wrong. Reinstalled the add-on, reloaded the page, and it looked just as it does in my screenshot.
Until Microsoft decides to fix IE so it can read HTML5 in accordance with open web standards, Chrome Frame is a great stop-gap add-on. Go ahead and install it – you probably won’t ever notice it’s there.
Price: Free
Version reviewed: 6.0.472.63
Requires: Internet Explorer 6, 7, or 8 – Windows XP, Vista, 7
