Microsoft Chrome
Encyclopedia
Microsoft
's Chrome was the code name for a set of APIs that allowed DirectX
to be easily accessed from user-space software, including HTML
. Launched with some fanfare in early 1998, Chrome, and the related Chromeffects
, was re-positioned several times before being canceled only a few months later in a corporate reorganization. Throughout its brief lifespan, the product was widely derided as an example of Microsoft's embrace, extend and extinguish
strategy of ruining standards efforts by adding options that only ran on their platforms.
more widely available, the Chrome project combined the Dimension X team with many members of the original D3D team. Chrome was originally positioned as a way to easily add 3D effects to all sorts of programs, and described as a "Windows system service" that would be finalized in early 1999. Chrome was the services level of the package, consisting of drivers that talked to D3D, along with a simple viewer application.
Chromeffects was an XML
-based wrapper that allowed Chrome to be called from within a web page. Embedding Chromeffects objects in HTML pages could produce rich content in the same way that VML does for 2D artwork. Chrome's project manager, Bob Heddle, claimed that "It is going to propel the industry. We're moving DirectX from programmers to artists." Likewise, Microsoft Liquid Motion
was a layer similar to Chromeffects but within Java
.
Chromeffects did not support any of the media standards that were being developed at the W3C coincident with its development, including HTML+TIME
or the document object model
. This led to widespread outcry from the internet community, who saw Chrome as an attempt by Microsoft to inject a powerful proprietary technology into the open standards based web. If uptake of Chromeffects was widespread, this would limit users to Microsoft platforms where the content could be viewed. This led to promises on the part of MS to better interact with these technologies in the future.
Chrome was previewed in July 1998 at that year's Siggraph
, with a developer's release following in August. At the time, Chrome demanded relatively hefty machines to run on, a 350 MHz Pentium II
or better with an AGP graphics card. Even Microsoft admitted the hardware requirements were steep, according to Brad Chase, Vice President of Windows marketing and developer relations at Microsoft, "The initial PCs that will run the Chrome feature of Windows 98 are going to be 350MHz Pentium boxes. You're not going to be able to have this on a standard Pentium today." However, Microsoft claimed that this standard would be widely met by new machines; the general manager of multimedia at Microsoft, Eric Engstrom, noted "Over next 12 months, our projections show that 55 to 60 million units capable of running Chromeffects will be shipped." In spite of these promises, feedback from the testers was almost universally negative, complaining about poor performance and general buggyness.
Given the almost universal negative press, both from its own developers and the wider community, Microsoft announced that "Based on developer feedback, we are stepping back and redesigning Chromeffects technologies to better meet both our partner and customer needs." Chrome's cancellation was part of a larger reorganization that resulted in dramatic shakeups within Microsoft's multimedia groups. Many of the Chrome staff were merged back into the DirectX team, while Eric Engstrom was moved out of multimedia to the MSN
team. Engstrom was in charge of Chrome and the equally "troubled" NetShow
streaming media projects. At the time there was also speculation that Chrome was killed in order to avoid further troubles at their ongoing antitrust
case, given the outcry from the web community.
Microsoft did deliver on their promise to better track internet standards, releasing Microsoft Vizact which was based on HTML+TIME. Vizact saw little uptake and was discontinued in 2000.
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
's Chrome was the code name for a set of APIs that allowed DirectX
DirectX
Microsoft DirectX is a collection of application programming interfaces for handling tasks related to multimedia, especially game programming and video, on Microsoft platforms. Originally, the names of these APIs all began with Direct, such as Direct3D, DirectDraw, DirectMusic, DirectPlay,...
to be easily accessed from user-space software, including HTML
HTML
HyperText Markup Language is the predominant markup language for web pages. HTML elements are the basic building-blocks of webpages....
. Launched with some fanfare in early 1998, Chrome, and the related Chromeffects
ChromEffects
Microsoft announced Chromeffects as an add-on for Windows 98 to play 3D graphics and video through a web browser or in separate player software, for ads with flashing text and other animation, or to generate user interface enhancements for Web-based applications.Chromeffects promised to deliver...
, was re-positioned several times before being canceled only a few months later in a corporate reorganization. Throughout its brief lifespan, the product was widely derided as an example of Microsoft's embrace, extend and extinguish
Embrace, extend and extinguish
"Embrace, extend and extinguish," also known as "Embrace, extend and exterminate," is a phrase that the U.S. Department of Justice found was used internally by Microsoft to describe its strategy for entering product categories involving widely used standards, extending those standards with...
strategy of ruining standards efforts by adding options that only ran on their platforms.
History
In May 1997, Microsoft bought pioneering startup Dimension X, developers of several Java-based animation tools including Liquid Motion and Liquid Realty. Looking to make their recently introduced Direct3DDirect3D
Direct3D is part of Microsoft's DirectX application programming interface . Direct3D is available for Microsoft Windows operating systems , and for other platforms through the open source software Wine. It is the base for the graphics API on the Xbox and Xbox 360 console systems...
more widely available, the Chrome project combined the Dimension X team with many members of the original D3D team. Chrome was originally positioned as a way to easily add 3D effects to all sorts of programs, and described as a "Windows system service" that would be finalized in early 1999. Chrome was the services level of the package, consisting of drivers that talked to D3D, along with a simple viewer application.
Chromeffects was an XML
XML
Extensible Markup Language is a set of rules for encoding documents in machine-readable form. It is defined in the XML 1.0 Specification produced by the W3C, and several other related specifications, all gratis open standards....
-based wrapper that allowed Chrome to be called from within a web page. Embedding Chromeffects objects in HTML pages could produce rich content in the same way that VML does for 2D artwork. Chrome's project manager, Bob Heddle, claimed that "It is going to propel the industry. We're moving DirectX from programmers to artists." Likewise, Microsoft Liquid Motion
Microsoft Liquid Motion
Microsoft Liquid Motion was a product from Microsoft to create Java animations. It was based on technology acquired from Dimension-X. A beta was released in 1998, and version 1.0 was released soon thereafter to compete with Macromedia Flash. The product was eventually discontinued by Microsoft in...
was a layer similar to Chromeffects but within Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
.
Chromeffects did not support any of the media standards that were being developed at the W3C coincident with its development, including HTML+TIME
HTML+TIME
HTML+TIME was the name of a W3C submission from Microsoft, Compaq/DEC and Macromedia that proposed an integration of SMIL semantics with HTML and CSS. The specifics of the integration were modified considerably by W3C working groups, and eventually emerged as the W3C Note XHTML+SMIL...
or the document object model
Document Object Model
The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use...
. This led to widespread outcry from the internet community, who saw Chrome as an attempt by Microsoft to inject a powerful proprietary technology into the open standards based web. If uptake of Chromeffects was widespread, this would limit users to Microsoft platforms where the content could be viewed. This led to promises on the part of MS to better interact with these technologies in the future.
Chrome was previewed in July 1998 at that year's Siggraph
SIGGRAPH
SIGGRAPH is the name of the annual conference on computer graphics convened by the ACM SIGGRAPH organization. The first SIGGRAPH conference was in 1974. The conference is attended by tens of thousands of computer professionals...
, with a developer's release following in August. At the time, Chrome demanded relatively hefty machines to run on, a 350 MHz Pentium II
Pentium II
The Pentium II brand refers to Intel's sixth-generation microarchitecture and x86-compatible microprocessors introduced on May 7, 1997. Containing 7.5 million transistors, the Pentium II featured an improved version of the first P6-generation core of the Pentium Pro, which contained 5.5 million...
or better with an AGP graphics card. Even Microsoft admitted the hardware requirements were steep, according to Brad Chase, Vice President of Windows marketing and developer relations at Microsoft, "The initial PCs that will run the Chrome feature of Windows 98 are going to be 350MHz Pentium boxes. You're not going to be able to have this on a standard Pentium today." However, Microsoft claimed that this standard would be widely met by new machines; the general manager of multimedia at Microsoft, Eric Engstrom, noted "Over next 12 months, our projections show that 55 to 60 million units capable of running Chromeffects will be shipped." In spite of these promises, feedback from the testers was almost universally negative, complaining about poor performance and general buggyness.
Given the almost universal negative press, both from its own developers and the wider community, Microsoft announced that "Based on developer feedback, we are stepping back and redesigning Chromeffects technologies to better meet both our partner and customer needs." Chrome's cancellation was part of a larger reorganization that resulted in dramatic shakeups within Microsoft's multimedia groups. Many of the Chrome staff were merged back into the DirectX team, while Eric Engstrom was moved out of multimedia to the MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...
team. Engstrom was in charge of Chrome and the equally "troubled" NetShow
NetShow
NetShow was Microsoft's framework for network broadcasting, intended to compete with RealNetworks RealMedia. It is now renamed and marketed under the Windows Media umbrella....
streaming media projects. At the time there was also speculation that Chrome was killed in order to avoid further troubles at their ongoing antitrust
Antitrust
The United States antitrust law is a body of laws that prohibits anti-competitive behavior and unfair business practices. Antitrust laws are intended to encourage competition in the marketplace. These competition laws make illegal certain practices deemed to hurt businesses or consumers or both,...
case, given the outcry from the web community.
Microsoft did deliver on their promise to better track internet standards, releasing Microsoft Vizact which was based on HTML+TIME. Vizact saw little uptake and was discontinued in 2000.
Further reading
- "Early Chrome Preview", scraped version of Microsoft's early web page
- "Steve Ballmer Speech Transcript - Keynote at Seybold 98", Balmer introduces Chromeffects
- Brad Neuberg, "Blast from the Web Past: DirectAnimation, Microsoft Chrome, and Cartoon Chat", ajaxian, 24 October 2008