Extensions Coming in May for Chrome: Look Out IE

by Sam Dean - Feb. 05, 2009Comments (1)

The Google Operating System blog and The Open Road have noted that Google's open source Chrome browser will get Firefox-like extensions by May. That's when the Google I/O conference takes place in San Francisco, and there is a session there titled "Developing extensions for Google Chrome." According to Google officials "This talk will cover the basics of the extension system (distribution/packaging, installation, updates), as well as the different APIs to enhance with the browser." As I've written before, this, along with the delivery of Mac and Linux versions of Chrome, will kick the browser into high gear, with Internet Explorer facing many problems.

Google has already made plans for encouraging and delivering Chrome extensions available. In this post, goals and guidelines are summarized. And this post delves into the exact processes for developing Chrome extensions. The Chromium core also already supports user scripts.

“The system should be able to support an open-ended list of APIs over time, such as toolbars, sidebars, content scripts (for Greasemonkey-like functionality), and content filtering (for parental filters, malware filters, or adblock-like functionality),” Google's design document adds. The plan calls for bookmarking, content enhancement, content filtering, download helper and other types of extensions.

With the Release Candidate of Internet Explorer 8 seriously lagging Firefox and Chrome in speed tests, and IE losing market share to open source browsers, both Chrome and Firefox are well positioned to step up the pace of the browser wars. What would really be ideal would be for developers of top Firefox extensions to deliver similar extensions for Chrome. I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that by next summer, even with Windows 7 getting good early reviews and Internet Explorer bundled, Firefox and Chrome will have driven Internet Explorer's market share from just under 70 percent all the way down to 50 percent. I'll check back in on this prediction.

 


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1 Comments
 

Shouldn't the title say look out FireFox? IE is already the "well, my PC came with it" version.


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