Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Built-in Lazy Loading Lands in Google Chrome Canary (bleepingcomputer.com)

Posted by msmash on from the up-next dept.

secwatcher writes: Google has started rolling out support for built-in lazy loading inside Chrome. Currently, support for image and iframe lazy loading is only available in Chrome Canary, the Chrome version that Google uses to test new features. Two flags are now available in the chrome://flags section of Chrome Canary. They are: chrome://flags/#enable-lazy-image-loading, chrome://flags/#enable-lazy-frame-loading. Enabling these two flags will activate a new type of content loading behavior inside the Chrome browser. The two flags have been available in Chrome Canary for a few days, since v70.0.3521.0.

33 of 57 comments (clear)

  1. Lazy loading is what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Tells us the exact names of the config flags, doesn't even explain what lazy loading is. More like lazy editing.

    1. Re:Lazy loading is what? by rossdee · · Score: 1

      Dunno, I don't use Chrome, and this story makes it even less likely that I would do so.

      I don't even know what Chrome canary is. Is it canary in a coal mine, or singing like a canary?

    2. Re:Lazy loading is what? by TheStickBoy · · Score: 1

      *THIS*
      If I can take minimal time to write an concise & descriptive email with audience=1, surely a journalist can take the time to write a descriptive summary with an audience of 1,000's +

      I suspect there is copy/pasting going on here.
      I think we should name this "copy/.pasting"

    3. Re:Lazy loading is what? by will_die · · Score: 1

      Lazy loading is a standard part of http/2 standard.
      The idea behind it is that a web site can decide to send you images, code,etc before you have actually requested it or need it. That way when you do request it you will get quicker web page viewing.
      The security issue with it is that an evil web site could decide to sent you evil images, code,etc that then when your computer is being looked at those evil items could show up. Currently, no browsers provide a way for an investigator to see if it is something you actually requested or if it was a lazy load.


      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

    4. Re:Lazy loading is what? by halivar · · Score: 1

      No, no, no, no. TFS is not the place to provide details, or context for people unfamiliar with common lingo for the subject. Literally everyone who works in web design/development knows what lazy load/lazy fetch is. Put that shit TFA and keep the summary clean. If you want to know more, click TFL (the fucking link).

    5. Re:Lazy loading is what? by halivar · · Score: 1

      No, what you are describing is Server Push, which has nothing to do with this. Lazy load, in this context, means the browser does not request elements that would be rendered off screen ("below the fold") until they are needed.

    6. Re:Lazy loading is what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      No, no, no, no. TFS is not the place to provide details, or context for people unfamiliar with common lingo for the subject. [..] If you want to know more, click TFL (the fucking link).

      The summary was so short, it wouldn't have hurt to copy/paste a little more from the article:

      In current Chrome versions, the browser will load an entire page's code when the user accesses an URL. With the two flags enabled, Chrome Canary will load all the page's elements that are visible on screen (called "above the fold" elements), but will not load images and iframes that are not visible on the page and are "below the fold."

    7. Re:Lazy loading is what? by DontBeAMoran · · Score: 1

      So in short, the browser will finally do by itself what idiots used to do using some bloated multi-megabytes javascript library.

      --
      #DeleteFacebook
    8. Re:Lazy loading is what? by nospam007 · · Score: 1

      "Tells us the exact names of the config flags, doesn't even explain what lazy loading is. "

      I'm a lazy loader. I'm too lazy to load anything anywhere.
      I always feign sciatica or a thrown back.
      Now I can just change a setting.

    9. Re:Lazy loading is what? by fibonacci8 · · Score: 1

      TFS is the place to provide enough reason to click TFL. A brief explanation, or a SFL (second fucking link) to a longer explanation would've sufficed. The target audience seems to be Google Chrome Canary users, current and potential. Not just "everyone who works in web design/development".

      --
      Inheritance is the sincerest form of nepotism.
  2. Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by tepples · · Score: 4, Informative

    In the web platform, lazy loading means don't download anything until the user scrolls to it.

    A lot of websites have implemented their own lazy loading in JavaScript for two reasons. One is improving perceived page load time by prioritizing the first screenful of the document. The other is saving server bandwidth (and client bandwidth for users on metered cellular Internet) by not serving large images that the user is not likely to view. But two drawbacks of this sort of lazy loading are 1. incompatibility with clients that do not use JavaScript and 2. incompatibility with clients that download a page over unmetered home Internet for later reading while offline or while on metered cellular Internet (such as while riding the bus).

    1. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by AvitarX · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Oh, that is the worst!

      instead of one time waiting a little longer, not when I scroll it stops every couple of seconds.

      I HATE it when sites do that.

      Especially if it's a shopping site, I can scroll quite quick deciding what I want to buy or not, and whenever I hit back after adding to cart, the place is lost.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    2. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by tepples · · Score: 1

      And back then you had more chance of flash of unstyled content (FOUC) when the no-CSS, no-script version of a document would appear and then abruptly change to the version modified by CSS and progressive enhancement. A lot of the loading delay you see on sites is due to FOUC prevention measures.

    3. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by tepples · · Score: 1

      Even if you want what you're trying to read or click on to move out from under you, I don't think the majority do. In addition, repeating layout and paint every time a subresource loads can become taxing on a CPU, especially since Moore's law switched from speed to cores.

    4. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      instead of one time waiting a little longer, not when I scroll it stops every couple of seconds.
      I HATE it when sites do that.

      You think you hate it? I'm on satellite. For every request needed to accomplish the lazy load, I get another second or more of latency added on just for round trip time.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    5. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by lexman098 · · Score: 1

      3. You have to wait for things to load when you go to actually look at the content

    6. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by reboot246 · · Score: 1

      I hate it, too. I have super fast internet that can load the whole page in the blink of an eye. Just load the damned page so I can scroll past your ads and headlines and shit, and get to the content I went there to see.

      The other pet peeve I have is a menu that drops down whenever the mouse passes over it. If I want to see the drop-down menu, I WILL CLICK ON IT! Stop with the crap already.

    7. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by Waccoon · · Score: 1

      Worst is that every site out there combines lazy loading with infinite scrolling. These two things alone have basically destroyed surfing the Internet and should die in a fire immediately.

      Also, I hate how lazy loading screws up my scrollbars and makes me constantly lose my reading position. I have a tendency to hold down the mouse button to scroll, and lazy loading makes that scrolling method impossible. If anything else, could web browser developers try to (optionally) implement dynamic scroll bars that don't jump around when new page content is loaded?

    8. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      It's for items lazy loading.

      Instead of paying through items, I get a couple dozen every time I approach the bottom.

      I can evaluate a couple dozen clearance suits, or shoes, or jackets, or whatever in far less time than it takes to load.

      And when I hit back and need to reload the couple hundred I've scrolled though (25 at a time), it is painful.

      I'm sure a lot of it is bad developers, but will the Chrome method fix that?

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
    9. Re:Don't DL anything until the user scrolls to it by AvitarX · · Score: 1

      Infinite scrolling sounds like a more accurate description of the disaster I'm thinking of.

      Except it's short bursts of very finite scrolling. They really just need to load the 500 or so various clearance items, and let me shop.

      --
      Wow, sent an e-mail as suggested when clicking on "use classic" banner, and got a fast response that addressed my msg
  3. Canary == Nightly by tepples · · Score: 2

    Chrome Canary is the unstable nightly build of the Google Chrome web browser, akin to Firefox Nightly.

  4. Does Lazy Loading break Ctrl + F/"find in page"? by SB5407 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I'd like to know if the Lazy Loading function of deferring loading images and third-party iframes on the page until the user scrolls near them breaks Ctrl+F/"find in page".

    Google had to re-do "Print" and "Save Page As" in order to support Lazy Loading. Did they also make Ctrl+F work or not?

  5. Re:Does Lazy Loading break Ctrl + F/"find in page" by mrbester · · Score: 2

    Unless it is dynamically loaded content Ctrl-F will work just fine as the text of the document has still been fully download, just not necessarily all the images it describes.

    --
    "Wait. Something's happening. It's opening up! My God, it's full of apricots!"
  6. Re:Does Lazy Loading break Ctrl + F/"find in page" by SB5407 · · Score: 1

    Ah, but what about text in third party iframes?

  7. Re:I thought this was standard ages ago ... by UnknownSoldier · · Score: 1

    1. So how does Print / Save to PDF work?

    2. The browser does not know if I am going to view the page offline later.

  8. Re:Does Lazy Loading break Ctrl + F/"find in page" by war4peace · · Score: 1

    Fuck third party iFrames.
    (my opinion as a regular user)

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  9. Re:Thank god by war4peace · · Score: 1

    Look at a bunch of immigrants loading an 18-wheeler. THAT is what lazy loading is! /joke - yeah I know, politically incorrect, well guess what I'm Romanian so it doesn't apply.

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  10. Re:Has good and bad effects by war4peace · · Score: 1

    How about them endless scrolling PoS websites?

    --
    ...gis sdrawkcab (usually not responding to ACs; don't bother posting as AC)
  11. Does this fix ... by gander666 · · Score: 1

    So, does this fix the "soak up every goddamn CPU cycle and peg all 4 cores" problem?

    Asking for a friend

    --
    Suppose you were an idiot and suppose you were a member of Congress ... but I repeat myself. - Mark T
  12. Too bad it doesn't work for ADS by p51d007 · · Score: 1

    They should be THE LAST thing that loads, if you aren't using a blocker.

    1. Re:Too bad it doesn't work for ADS by tepples · · Score: 1

      If a website's sponsors can't get their message through, would you prefer a paywall on the document you are trying to read, as well as paywalls on the next three or four comparable search results?

  13. Re:If you use 100 tabs, you’re a hoarder. by tepples · · Score: 1

    Having a document loaded in a tab, as opposed to a bookmark, makes it more likely that you will remain able to read the document while your user agent is offline. It also saves the state of the document beyond what the developer chose to incorporate in the URL, such as the POST data that led to a particular view or the changes made by script to the DOM.

  14. Some sites don't want you to print by tepples · · Score: 1

    Some websites' operators may not want non-subscribers to print documents or read them offline. The following assumes the point of view of such websites:

    1. So how does Print / Save to PDF work?

    First you sign up for a recurring monthly payment on each website whose documents you want to print. Then you can download the document in PDF form from the website. If you try to print without first subscribing, the site may put garbage all over the printed version to make it less desirable, as the ads served along with the document are targeted to your interests, not to those of subsequent readers. Ars Technica is like this.

    2. The browser does not know if I am going to view the page offline later.

    The website treats offline reading as a perk for subscribers. If you don't want to subscribe to a website, you can avoid going offline in the first place by paying a cellular ISP for a subscription to cellular Internet access. Bores DSP is like this.