Blink (browser engine)
Blink is a browser engine developed as part of the free and open-source Chromium project. Blink is by far the most-used browser engine, due to the market share dominance of Google Chrome and the fact that many other browsers are based on the Chromium code.
Developer(s) | The Chromium Project |
---|---|
Initial release | 3 April 2013[1] |
Repository | |
Written in | C++ |
Type | Browser engine |
License | BSD and LGPLv2.1 |
Website | www |
To create Chrome, Google chose to use Apple's WebKit engine.[2] However, Google needed to make substantial changes to the WebKit code to support its novel multi-process browser architecture.[1][3] Over the course of several years, the divergence from Apple's version increased, so Google decided to officially fork its version as Blink in 2013.[1][3]
Blink's name was influenced by two factors: the implication of speed, and a reference to the non-standard blink HTML element,[4][5] which was never actually supported by Blink.[6]
By commit count, Google was the largest contributor to the WebKit project from late 2009 until the fork in 2013.[7] One of the first changes of the new fork was to deprecate CSS vendor prefixes, including WebKit's; experimental Blink functionality is instead enabled on an opt-in basis.[8]
See also
- Comparison of browser engines
- V8, the Chromium JavaScript engine
References
- Barth, Adam (3 April 2013). "Blink: A rendering engine for the Chromium project". blog.chromium.org. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- Fisher, Darin (5 September 2008). "Chrome <3s WebKit". blog.chromium.org. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
- Bright, Peter (3 April 2013). "Google going its own way, forking WebKit rendering engine". Ars Technica. Conde Nast. Retrieved 9 March 2017.
- Lardinois, Frederic (3 April 2013). "Google Forks WebKit And Launches Blink, A New Rendering Engine That Will Soon Power Chrome And Chrome OS". TechCrunch. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- Shankland, Stephen (3 April 2013). "Google parts ways with Apple over WebKit, launches Blink". CNet. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- Kobie, Nicole (7 August 2013). "Firefox 23 finally kills "blink" tag". PC Pro. Archived from the original on 2 December 2013. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
- Siracusa, John (12 April 2013). "Hypercritical: Code Hard or Go Home". Hypercritical.co. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
- "Blink Developer FAQ". The Chromium Projects. Retrieved 22 October 2014.