Google Quietly Launches Data Saver Extension For Chrome

An anonymous reader writes Google has quietly released a Data Saver extension for Chrome, bringing the company's data compression feature to the desktop for the first time. You can download the extension, currently in beta, from the Chrome Web Store. We say "quietly" because there doesn't seem to be an announcement from Google. The extension was published on March 23 and appears to work exactly as advertised on the tin, based on what we've seen in our early tests.

Comments

Proxy! WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

So, it's a Google proxy service that routes, not just my searches through Google but, ALL of my browser activity through Google?

I'm going to take a pass. Thanks anyway, Google.

Re:Proxy! WTF?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, that's exactly what Chrome is. But what does the extension do?

Re:Proxy! WTF?

[ArcadeMan]

ilovefurriesporn.com doesn't even exists, you insensitive clod!

Re:Proxy! WTF?

[tepples]

Except for pages accessed via SSL

Which means that once your favorite sites adopt HSTS, Data Saver becomes useless.

What does it do?

[Anonymous Coward]

Maybe it works "exactly as advertised on the tin", but TFS doesn't say whatever the tin says.
Why should I care about some random unexplained extension?

Re:What does it do?

[SternisheFan]

It does exactly what it says on the tin" was originally an advertising slogan in the United Kingdom, which then became a common idiomatic phrase.[1][2] It colloquially means anything that is as it appears or claims to be without further explanation needed. It originated in a series of television advertisements by the woodstain and wood-dye manufacturer Ronseal, initiated in 1994 and still being broadcast as of 2013.[3] The phrase originated from a winning entry to a competition run by Polycell. The winner Mrs Ailsie Allen coined the phrase " it does what it says". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D...

Anyone remember Google Web Accelerator?

[dkegel]

/. posters have such a short memory :-) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G...

Re:Anyone remember Google Web Accelerator?

[jdi_knght]

Yeah, I remember it. It's an accelerating web proxy. Opera offers one, too.

And one can even set a compressing proxy at home. What's the difference between "Data saver" and such proxies?

Google's closely follows a lot of stuff that their PageSpeed Module does. On-the-fly HTML/JS/CSS optimization, image conversion to WebP, etc. I don't know if they've extended it beyond that to other areas like recompressing videos (which I believe Opera's service does).

Worth noting that a variant of it has been available in Chrome's mobile browser for awhile now, and there was an unofficial version for the desktop called Data Compression Proxy which was essentially a little hack to run the desktop browser through the mobile service.

As for benefits: If under a pretty strict data cap where you're often touching the limit, it gives a lot of extra breathing room (easily comparable to the savings from an ad blocker). You wouldn't believe how unoptimized a lot of sites are. As a side benefit, if you're on dial-up, connecting through slow fixed wireless in a rural area, are using a poor cell data connection, etc (basically any time you're in a situation where pages are taking 5-10 seconds to load), it actually speeds things up quite a bit. Of course, if you're on true high speed, it'll probably slow things down more often than not since their proxy's going to add at least *some* latency, plus the additional hops if you're not lucky enough to get a nearby cached copy.

In regards to the suggestion of "setting a compressing proxy at home", assuming for the moment that the home isn't where you're having problems with a data cap, sure. But it's going to take a lot of code to match the depth of stuff that either Google's or Opera's services do. Then again, you'd retain a little more privacy. And with your own root certs you could MITM yourself on SSL sites and get the bandwidth savings there too. I suppose it just depends on how much time you have and how badly you want/need it.

And it does... what, exactly?

[wonkey_monkey]

Would it kill you to explain even vaguely what this thing does in the summary?

Re:And it does... what, exactly?

[insanecarbonbasedlif]

Would it kill you to explain even vaguely what this thing does in the summary?

It save data so your Chrome browsing can be analyzed.

Re:And it does... what, exactly?

[Espectr0]

compresses HTTP traffic, especially images, like Opera Mini

Proxy

[digitalPhant0m]

Might as well just proxy all my stuff through the NSA's data compressor while I'm at it.