| Developer(s) | TheChromium Project |
|---|---|
| Initial release | 3 April 2013; 11 years ago (2013-04-03)[1] |
| Repository | |
| Written in | C++ |
| Type | Browser engine |
| License | BSD andLGPLv2.1 |
| Website | www |
Blink is abrowser engine developed as part of thefree and open-sourceChromium project. Blink is by far the most-used browser engine, due to themarket share dominance ofGoogle Chrome and the fact thatmany other browsers are based on the Chromiumcode.
To create Chrome,Google chose to useApple'sWebKit 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 officiallyfork 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-standardblink 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 deprecateCSS vendor prefixes, including WebKit's; experimental Blink functionality is instead enabled on an opt-in basis.[8]
