On Thursday, Richard Rabbat and Bryan McQuade with the Page Speed Team posted in the Google Code Blog that the top search company is rolling out a feature to the public that they've been working on and with over recent years.
The feature is
Page Speed, and it was made open-source as of yesterday, it seems. Why?
"At Google, we focus constantly on speed, the team members wrote, "we believe that making our websites load and display faster improves the user's experience and helps them become more productive."
Page Speed, a FireFox and Firebug Add-On, delivers "immediate suggestions on how you can change your web pages to improve their speed."
So... again... not just a clever name.
Here's a breakdown of two examples the Page Speed Team provided in the post:
- Run Page Speed on your computer, and the tool will optimize on-page images for you, automatically providing compressed versions ready for use-giving you and your users a considerably quicker page load time.
- Run Page Speed on your computer, and the tool will locate issues such as unnecessary software downloads, like JavaScript and CSS that isn't required to view the page after all.
It's simple cutbacks like these that, the team maintains, "can help reduce time your users spend waiting for the page to download and display."
Google has been utilizing the Page Speed tool on an internal basis in order to boost performance on their webpages.
As always, Google is anxious for users to try out the new feature, and is looking forward to feedback from those who do. Have you tried Google's Page Speed feature? Check out the
Webmaster Help Forum and leave your two cents.
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