- ChromEffects
Microsoft announced ChromEffects as an add-on forWindows 98 to play 3D graphics and video through aweb 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 complex multimedia over low-bandwidth connections. Using
HTML ,XML ,C++ ,VBScript , andJscript , developers would turn a web browser into a rippling, 3D space with audio and video playback. Later versions of ChromEffects were planned to have the ability to be used for representing databases in 3D.A
MacWeek article from August 1998 quotedDavid Card , an analyst atJupiter Communications as saying, "ChromEffects is cool software, and it's not often I say Microsoft has cool software. Apple doesn't have anything comparable."ChromEffects had problems with its business model, it was not intended to be a freely distributed technology, rather OEM PC manufacturers or other commericial entities would license the technology to provide to their customers as an IE add-on. However despite a hard marketing push in mid-1998, OEM interest never materialized and Microsoft canceled the project as part of a major internal reorg in November 1998.
The
Microsoft Liquid Motion technology used ChromeEffects "under the hood".A similar newer modern initiative by Microsoft is Silverlight.
External links
* [http://news.com.com/2100-1001-213566.html Microsoft Debuts ChromEffects] July 1998
* [http://news.com.com/Microsoft+shelves+Chromeffects/2100-1023_3-217885.html?tag=st.rc.targ_mb Microsoft Shelves ChromEffects] November 1998
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