Google said it will stop using Apple’s Webkit to power its Chrome Web browser and instead use the new open source rendering engine, Blink. Google has used Webkit since 2001.
Google software engineer Adam Barth said Chrome uses a different multi-process architecture than other WebKit-based browsers.
He added that supporting multiple architectures over the years had led to increasing complexity for both the WebKit and Chromium projects, slowing down the collective pace of innovation.
Google said the introduction of a new rendering engine could have significant implications for the web, and having multiple rendering engines, similar to having multiple browsers, will spur innovation and over time improve the health of the entire open web ecosystem.
The company said Blink will bring little change for web developers as the bulk of the initial work will focus on internal architectural improvements and a simplification of the codebase.
Barth said: "Throughout this transition, we’ll collaborate closely with other browser vendors to move the web forward and preserve the compatibility that made it a successful ecosystem."
Opera’s Bruce Lawson also said in a blogpost that the company’s new browsers will also be based on Blink. Lawson said, "Its architecture allows for greater speed – something that Opera and Google have long focused on."
"When browsers are fast and interoperable, using the web as a platform becomes more competitive against native app development," Lawson added.
