Google compared to Microsoft seems to be the young fella, the one that dares to do things. With a seemingly large group of magical developers they present Google Chrome Frame, their brave new attempt to drag grandpa Internet Explorer into the future.

Google Chrome Frame, as the name suggests, is based on the core of the Chrome web browser (and operating system). And simply put, Chrome Frame brings those technologies to the IE world, enabling ultra-fast JS through V8 as well as support for new HTML5 technologies (eg. <canvas> tag).

So how does it work? Well Google Frame is an early stage, open-source, plug-in for Internet Explorer, that injects all the Chrome core technologies into IE. Why would you want to do that? Well, if you can drag IE into the future, you also drag the largest portion of web citizens along (who haven't switched yet to a proper web browser).

To support Chrome Frame, adding a simple tag will trigger its functionality when visiting an enabled web site. Optionally you can redirect the user to install the Chrome Frame plug-in. Of course it's still in an early phase and has some known issues (no printing support in Chrome Frame, nor UI feedback on downloads), but I'm sure it will be completed in time.

This new Google technology sounds interesting to me. Of course we all want everyone to switch to Chrome, Firefox, Opera or Safari. But sometimes you need to do it all with baby steps, one at a time.