Who said browsers are no good in 3D graphics? Although high-quality, hardware-accelerated three-dimensional graphics is usually associated with native applications you install and run on your computer, your browser is catching up fast.

Take Chrome 9, the latest stable release posted last week. It comes with built-in support for WebGL, a Khronos Group application programming interface allowing developers to create and animate complex 3D graphics via the HTML code. Chrome 9 parses and translates those HTML instructions into a code that your graphics card can run directly, without the use of browser plug-ins.

WebGL makes possible new breed of web apps that utilize lush, hardware-accelerated 3D graphics and smooth animation to take the user experience to the next level. Chrome 9 is the first browser to support WebGL, but upcoming releases of Apple's Safari and Mozilla's Firefox will also support this standard.

If you happen to run the latest stable release of Chrome 9 (check your version by hitting About Google Chrome under the wrench menu), then you must check out a bunch of working examples the search firm posted on the Chrome Experiments page. If you thought interactive apps like Facebook or Gmail were the cream of the crop, prepare yourself for a reality check. Unlike your mother's JavaScript, these examples will knock your socks off provided your computer is equipped with a decent graphics card. I'm in particular fond of WebGL Music Visualizer with a bunch of visualizing presets executing smoother and looking better than the iTunes visualizer on my Mac mini equipped with a 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor.

I was also able to run eye-candy experiments full screen, like Aleksandar Rodic's Jelly Fish, the animated Julia fractal, Cooliris' famous Wall of Photos or Google's own Google Body - all in 1920 by 1080 full HD resolution and running at 30 frames per second. Matter of fact, highly complex scene like WebGL Aquarium seen above maintain a smooth frame rate even with cranked up details and a thousand fish objects - without a significant tax on multitasking.

You really have to see this stuff in action in order to fully realize what a quantum leap WebGL is for the web at large. Think WebGL-enhanced games and web apps like Google Earth or Google Maps, with polished and smooth graphics that blurs the line between a native desktop app and a web app. If you don't run Chrome 9, feast your eyes on the videos embedded below. You may be convinced to upgrade.