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Chrome's Lite Pages Speed Up HTTPS Webpages on Slow Connections (venturebeat.com)

Posted by msmash on from the speeding-things-up dept.

An anonymous reader shares a report: Frustrated by web pages that never seem to load properly? Well, Google hopes to make them a thing of the past. Today, the company announced that Chrome on Android's Data Saver, a feature that automatically improves page loading using "built-in optimizations" and dedicated servers -- speeding them up by a factor of two and reducing data usage by up to 90 percent -- now supports encrypted HTTPS webpages. Previously, it only worked with unencrypted HTTP content. The latest stable version of Chrome on Android indicates in the URL bar when a lightweight version of a web page -- a Lite page -- is being displayed. Tapping the indicator shows additional information and provides an option to load the original version of the page. Google says that Chrome will automatically disable Lite pages on a per-site basis when it detects that "users frequently opt to load the original page."

10 of 84 comments (clear)

  1. JavaScript is the bane of the entire universe! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The real cause: SHITTY JavaScript that pulls in half the world's code base just to render "Welcome to my shitty web page!"

    If you're "web developer" creating such abominations, you are a turdbrain dumbass and probably too incompetent to jerk off.

    1. Re:JavaScript is the bane of the entire universe! by jellomizer · · Score: 2

      Perhaps browsers should have some of the common JavaScript libraries preinstalled like Jquery and Angular.
      Or have a way to limit how much of these libraries we need to download to get the page to work. A lot of site you have to download a meg of js code, just so the developer and shortcut a document.getElementById(object).innerHTML = "string" command.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
    2. Re:JavaScript is the bane of the entire universe! by ilsaloving · · Score: 2

      The subject line isn't bullshit. Javascript really is that garbage of a language. While yes, it is true that poor programmers can bollocks up anything, a poorly made language will amplify that behaviour while a good language will mitigate it.

      Javascript is so abysmal that it goes one step further and not only makes it trivial to write garbage code, it actually makes it difficult to write _good_ code. It's a god-forsaken clusterfuck that makes about as much sense as Ted Bundy running a rape crisis centre.

      If Javascript didn't suck so bad, why is there a ginormous ecosystem of products whose sole purpose is to bring about some level of sanity and control? Hell, there are literally entire languages out there (eg: TypeScript) that exist for no other reason than to provide a layer of stability to Javascript. Literally no other programming language has this problem. Not one. Not even Perl.

      Remember, Javascript was never designed or intended to reach the point it has. It was supposed to be a minor glue language, confined to minor DOM operations within the browser. Now people are using it to do every damn thing under the sun, including drive server code.

      I find myself missing the days when we accused Microsoft Office of being bloated. Now we have Electron-based apps that are so hideously inflated beyond all reasonable expectations that a single chat app can take GIGAbytes of memory!. The list of failings caused by the Javascript explosion is nearly endless.

  2. Uh, so by default Google reads everything? by luvirini · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I mean the default for chrome for android is that Google will read everything you browse?

    1. Re:Uh, so by default Google reads everything? by AmiMoJo · · Score: 4, Informative

      No.

      They have a database of commonly accessed content that they have pre-compressed on their own servers, such as Javascript frameworks. When the browser notices it needs to load one, it instead loads from the Google server or uses a locally cached copy. This happens even if the site said "load my copy", which usually means that the browser should re-download it no matter what.

      Occasionally this breaks things because some sites modify their local copies, hence the need for the override.

      This does not require any data about your browsing habits to be sent to Google, except in cases where you opt-in to sending it when you click on the override. It is explicitly opt-in, turned off by default.

      --
      const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
      SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
    2. Re:Uh, so by default Google reads everything? by jpaine619 · · Score: 2, Informative

      While I mostly agree with you, you have made a small error in your logic. It's not your browser. It's a free browser that you downloaded from Google that has been coded to do what they want it to do.

      I despise Google (for most things) but there is an element of entitlement in you demanding that software, you paid nothing for, behave in a manner you dictate. If you had paid for the software, then you'd have an argument (of sorts). But, you haven't. You're placing demands on something you have vested no money in. There's an old saying "Beggars can't be choosers".

      Get a different browser.. One that conforms to your desire. How many stories, about Google siphoning up huge amounts of personal data and related information, do we have to have before you people ditch Chrome?

      You are not Google's customer. You are Google's PRODUCT and you are being sold as such. This isn't news. This has been going on for at least a decade.

  3. You want me to LET you MITM my connection?! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2

    So you want me to report every page I visit to you, MITM them. And then, only then, can I opt out and reload the normal way? Fuck. NO!

    Data Saver is spyware. Chrome Lite is spyware. Fuck. NO.

  4. google walls off the internet by goombah99 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Holy cow this is the very thing we are afraid of. like Facebooks Internet basics initiative and all the links inside facebook that only work inside facebook. Already many web pages are no longer accessible on an iphone unless you install chrome. Now we get this version of the internet only available to websites that optimize their pages for big Goog.

    I de-installed chrome just like I quit facebook

    --
    Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
  5. Another toll-booth in the making... by QuietLagoon · · Score: 2, Insightful

    ... if you want your content to make it to the device requesting it, please pay a toll to google, then proceed.

  6. Re:Screw Chrome - go FF or others... apk by green1 · · Score: 2

    Chrome also has a way to turn this off, just turn "Data Saver" off.