Mozilla backs Microsoft's criticism of Chrome Frame

Microsoft has received support from an unexpected quarter in the dispute over Chrome Frame, an extension which embeds Google's Chrome browser in Internet Explorer. Mike Shaver, Vice President Engineering for Mozilla Corporation, gives his views in a blog posting in which he criticises the plug-in.

Although he thinks that much of the web works better with a more modern browser than Internet Explorer, he nonetheless thinks that inserting another browser (in this case Chrome) into Internet Explorer is wrong-headed, as it weakens or disables a whole range of functions including private browsing modes and security settings, as well as ease-of-use functions such as accelerators and extensions which access content in the browser window.

Mozilla Foundation Chairperson Mitchell Baker takes a similar line in her blog posting on the issue. Rather than achieving the unification which Google is striving for, in particular with regard to web standards, with Frame, a browser within a browser leads to greater fragmentation. According to Baker, users will lose control over what used to be their browser. The result will be kind of "browser soup", in which users no longer know what's going on in, whether it is Chrome or Internet Explorer which is saving their passwords and history, for example.

Google says it has developed Chrome Frame because Internet Explorer has problems running its Wave collaboration tool. Users wanting to use Wave in IE have either to install Chrome Frame or use a different browser. Microsoft has argued that Chrome Frame raises security issues.

(djwm)