Blink (browser engine)

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Blink
Developer(s)The Chromium Project
Initial release3 April 2013; 10 years ago (2013-04-03)[1]
Repository
Written inC++
TypeBrowser engine
LicenseBSD and LGPLv2.1
Websitewww.chromium.org/blink/

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.

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]

Name[edit]

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 introduced in the 1990s by Netscape Navigator and supported by Presto- and Gecko-based browsers until 2013.[6] Contrary to its name, Blink never functionally supported the element.

History[edit]

By commit count, Google was the largest contributor to the WebKit project from late 2009 until 2013,[7] when Google's modified version was officially forked as Blink.[1][3] Much of the unwanted WebKit code was used for features that Google implemented differently in Chromium, such as sandboxing and the multi-process model. Blink also deprecated CSS vendor prefixes, including WebKit's; experimental functionality is instead enabled on an opt-in basis.[8]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. ^ Fisher, Darin (5 September 2008). "Chrome <3s WebKit". blog.chromium.org. Retrieved 12 March 2024.
  2. ^ 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.
  3. ^ Shankland, Stephen (3 April 2013). "Google parts ways with Apple over WebKit, launches Blink". CNet. Retrieved 25 November 2013.
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ Siracusa, John (12 April 2013). "Hypercritical: Code Hard or Go Home". Hypercritical.co. Retrieved 15 June 2013.
  6. ^ "Blink Developer FAQ". The Chromium Projects. Retrieved 22 October 2014.

External links[edit]