Google has begun integrating its O3D plug-in for hardware-accelerated 3D graphics into its Chrome browser.
"The O3D team is working on getting O3D integrated into the Chromium build, and we're close to being able to complete our first step towards integration," said programmer Greg Spencer in a mailing list announcement on Wednesday about Chromium, the open-source project that underlies Chrome. "I'll be making the Windows build of Chromium dependent upon building O3D as part of the build process."
By helping to pave the way for high-powered web-based games, the move furthers Google's ambition to speed the transformation of the web from a static medium into a foundation for applications. Google is also working on its Native Client, which has been designed to allow web applications to take advantage of a computer's native processing power.
The strategy has taken on new importance with the announcement of Chrome OS, Google's Chrome-based operating system that is set to be installed on netbooks in the second half of 2010. Chrome OS will use Linux, but the real foundation for applications is the web, according to Google.
Google also plans to build Native Client into Chrome.
"We recognise that there is well-justified resistance to installing browser plug-ins. For this reason, we have a strong preference for delivering Native Client preinstalled or built into the browser, and we'll be focusing on that as our main strategy for delivering Native Client to users," said Brad Chen, engineering manager of the Google Native Client effort, in June.
However, offering the technologies is only a first step. Google must convince programmers to use them and web developers to embrace them. But will not be easy, especially when few browsers can take advantage of them.
Chrome will not be the only browser to feature the acceleration features, though, because Google is also working on plug-in versions. By building the technology into Chrome, Google could exert pressure on others to support it.
Making Native Client and O3D into some kind of standard could help convince programmers the technologies are worth supporting and win over potential rivals. "The support of ratified standards [web developers can use] is something that we are extremely supportive of," said Amy Barzdukas, general manager for IE, in an interview.
After years of near-dormancy, development of HTML, the language used to describe web pages, has hit a feverish pace as browser makers try to make the web into more of an applications platform.
Browser wars are back
Google added new fury to the browser wars when it introduced Chrome in September last year. Chrome has attained a small, but respectable, marketshare of nearly two percent, according to research from Net Applications, but it has a long way to go to enter the mainstream.
Chrome does not have the advantage of IE or Safari of being built into an operating system, although that could change if Chrome OS overcomes its challenges and catches on in a big way. Mozilla's Firefox took years to achieve its present marketshare of about 20 percent, which makes it the top alternative to IE and in widespread enough use that developers often make sure their websites work with it.
Google has spent a lot of time reproducing what other browsers already have — plug-ins, bookmark management, print preview and any number of mundane, but useful, features. But Google also has been working on innovation, including more robust security and faster performance when running applications, written in the JavaScript Web programming language.
The company has high hopes that it will be able to match the performance of desktop applications with the technology.
"With O3D, we think we'll enable high-quality games, the kind you're accustomed to seeing on consoles, as well as CAD applications," said Chen in a speech in May. Regarding Native Client, he said: "We want to be within single-digit percentages of what you can do with the best desktop native code."
Google also is participating in a separate 3D Web graphics effort spearheaded by Mozilla and the Khronos Group.
