Those who use Google Chrome as their browser of choice owe much to the WebKit browser engine.
Google has now announced its new Chrome browser engine, Blink, marking a departure from familiar territory across WebKit open source platform. Apple’s Safari is based on WebKit2, which is probably why Google chose to move away from the open source platform. Moreover, making changes to the KDE project’s KHTML engine became a little difficult, considering how big it has become.
On that note, Google has decided to move from the nest and begin its browser engine related work on Blink. The current version of Chrome, which is 26, is still not based on Blink. Chrome 28 will be the first ‘blinking release’, as Chrome programmer Mike West put it. Apple has control over WebKit2 and only 18 people are allowed to approve changes. Of those 18 people, 16 are affiliated with Apple, one with Nokia and another with both Nokia and Apple.
This left Google in a state of limbo and it decided to move ahead on its own. Moreover, Chrome’s emphasis on multi-tasking and speed encouraged Google to separate its ways from the WebKit community. While it is not clear how the move will impact Chrome users, things certainly should become a lot more different when you try to browse the Internet using Chrome 28, which is expected in the near future.
Google’s Chrome browser has remained open source throughout, but the tech giant maintains a strict authority over the browser, so that its security features are not compromised. It would be very interesting to see how Chrome would develop in future and what the forking will entail for Google and Chrome users. You could also read about our previous post on Chrome Password Fail, which was disappointing to say the least. Google had also announced Chrome OS which suggested a move towards the cloud computing.
