Google Chrome is about to get a serious speed boost. The search company announced its plan to introduce its new compression algorithm, Brotli, which can compress internet data up to 26% faster, thus make browsing zippier than ever.
However, there is a caveat. The data-crunching increases that Brotli yields currently apply exclusively to HTTPS connections. In other words, only the sites with which you can establish a secure connection to will benefit. On Chrome, you can easily tell if you're using an HTTPS-enabled site by checking for the green lock symbol in the URL bar.
Brotli will be introduced to Chrome soon, but as Google announced in September, it has big aspirations for its latest data compression algorithm. It wants Brotli to be a data format that's adopted by the world's other leading browsers, like Firefox and Safari. If Brotli works as well as Google says it does, Mozilla and Apple have little reason to refuse implementing it. But, of course, there are politics in tech and it could end up never happening. Needless to say, we'll be watching this space very closely.
If you're anxious to give it a try right now, download Google's developer-focused browser variant, Chrome Canary. But, if you can hang tight, the algorithm is likely to roll out in the coming weeks.
Via Independent
