14 DAY TRIAL // Google has decided that MathML, a markup language for math formulas, has no place in Chrome. The browser used to support the technology, but the company decided to remove it citing concerns about security, performance and, more importantly, maintainability, as Cnet notes.
MathML has been around for a while. It's designed to make it possible to write complicated mathematical formulas using a simple and standard markup. But browser support has been iffy, to say the least.
Firefox and Safari support it, but Internet Explorer doesn't. Up until recently, Chrome did too, thanks to its WebKit core with Safari. But, earlier this year, Google decided to part ways with WebKit and create Blink, a WebKit fork that Google gets complete control over.
One of the first things Google has done after creating Blink, pretty much the only thing so far, was to remove as much unneeded code as possible.
This is how MathML got axed as well. Initially, some security issues had been keeping Google worried. But those issues have now been fixed in WebKit. Still, the search giant is afraid that it can't commit the resources needed to maintain MathML on an ongoing basis, i.e. to pay people to work on it.
Instead, Google advocates for MathJax, a JavaScript implementation of the MathML markup. This makes it possible for any browser to display the complicated formulas without supporting MathML natively. But this adds a lot of overhead and is definitely slower than the native alternative.
For now though, Google's decision seems final. The company has no plans to support MathML for now or anytime in the near future. That may change, of course, but it does present a problem for those hoping MathML gains a wider following. Of course, if MathML does become popular even without Chrome's help, that may prompt the Mountain View giant to reconsider.