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Chrome to pre-load pages for "wicked fast" browsing

By Emil Protalinski

On November 11, 2010, 2:00 PM

Google is working on a new feature that could boost Chrome's browsing speed even more. Still in the works, the new page-preloading capability will allow Google's browser to load Web pages before they're actually needed. "Pre-load pages in background tabs for 'wicked fast' page loads," a brief description of the feature reads on the Chromium issues tracker (via CNET). The feature is expected to arrive via an early build in February 2011.

As with any browser, Chrome lets you browse the Web via multiple tabs. Loading select pages in background tabs would mean the browser will not have to load those pages from scratch when they're needed by the user, which will make them available much more quickly. How this will be executed isn't clear yet. Google won't be able to take up too much memory with background tabs or the speed benefits will quickly fall apart. Furthermore, Google will need to choose which pages to preload among the hundreds of thousands a user might want to visit, and how long it will keep them cached.

Google has an obsession with speed that many have benefitted from. It is one of the primary reasons why Chrome's market share continues to grow at a steady rate. Nevertheless, we're going to reserve judgment until we see this feature for ourselves. The idea is an interesting one, but as always, it all comes down to execution.


User Comments: 56

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  1. The best browser I have ever used. Reliable and fast and now they are making even more faster. Nice work Google, you always know how to satisfy your users

  2. I want this, but with Opera!

  3. only thing if, what are there are like 50 links on that page, is chrome gonna load them all at once?

  4. i've already tested in Chromium latest version and its amazing!!!

    If other browsers dont keep up with this tecnology they will surely be left behind

    to ikesmasher, its not for links on sites, at least for the moment, its for searching via hyperlink, like for example "ww.techsp....." and you havent clicked enter yet and it will show on the screen already behind it.

    maybe they will do when you mouse over in the future

  5. I might switch to Chrome if this is as awesome as it sounds.

  6. I will say I have used Chrome exclusively since it has come out....only I dont is because I am on a Mcirosoft site that has to IE8

  7. I'm not sure how I managed to browse the internet before I had Chrome. It's a fantastic browser, and this will only make it better yet.

  8. Google is dedicated to making chrome the fastest, that's why I use it

  9. It seems like this is a expansion upon their "Instant search" feature for google.com. Sounds very nice! But, still I am a firefox fan. Mostly because I'm not one to notice the speed differences in a browser...and I am a "if it's not broke, don't fix it" sort of guy. If firefox presented me with a reason to change..than I will. I've tried chrome and opera(multiple versions) and to me...it's just another browser.

    If I needed to change though, I'd pick opera..mainly because I do not want a advertising company to track my movements 24/7. I'd rather not trust them to not be evil...I'll just make sure they have no choice but to.

  10. I'm not sure of the details, but I'd think this would be a problem for when I'm tweaking website design. It's already a pain being sure the browser reloads a fresh copy of a page or CSS file, I'd think it'd be even worse when you've got predictive cache to hassle with too.

  11. I really do not understand this. Does anyone really benefit from, or see the difference between a page loading in 180ms vs 200ms? is this purely bragging rights?.... or is there a practical application for this 100ms (or whatever the ridiculously small increment of time is?)

  12. I think this is a great way to speed things up, I visit certain pages almost daily... and I would really love if those pages load instantly, even more, if for some reason there is no access to Internet, chrome could load the last saved version... Cool! Keep it up and simple google!

  13. As long as it's RAM usage doesn't skyrocket because of this then they should try it.

  14. Nima304 said:

    I might switch to Chrome if this is as awesome as it sounds.

    I might too but I'm still staying with FF for Noscript, adblock plus, foxfilter.

  15. puiu said:

    As long as it's RAM usage doesn't skyrocket because of this then they should try it.

    Same here. One would think that pre-loading all of those pages into memory (some site homepages have hundreds of links) would occupy loads of system ram.

  16. I really do not understand this. Does anyone really benefit from, or see the difference between a page loading in 180ms vs 200ms? is this purely bragging rights?.... or is there a practical application for this 100ms (or whatever the ridiculously small increment of time is?)

    God knows, most pages load immediately when I click them, or have pretty much displayed as I hit enter when typing a URL in, so I don't really get how it would make my experience any better.

    Would it be an improvement for slower internet connections though?

  17. ...there's been a Firefox extension that does the exact same thing out for years.

  18. Firefox is the best ive used but i do like chrome a lot.

  19. Chrome runs very nicely on slow PCs, so wouldn't this slow them down? And people with higher spec computers probably won't even notice the difference anyway.

  20. What is that Firefox extension called? I'd like to try it out.

    I could see this caching being useful... but it seems very risky and expensive if you don't get it right...

    At least this would matter to most users though, unlike java script  speeds which really doesn't affect people as much as it is hyped up to.

  21. Chrome is just a stripped down version of Opera...

  22. interesting... I think they could easily do this when people hover their mouse arrow over a link. But on top of this, I suppose google's keeping track of peoples browsing habits could help predict what links you may click and preload those pages.

  23. Chrome is just a stripped down version of Opera...

    Absurd.. Naive... Ignorant.. Troll....

    I really dont know which to call you.

  24. This sounds like a cool idea, no matter how they implement. I don't see this really helping stumble upon users though, as the sites are completely random

  25. To me Chrome is already the browsing choice if this works out as they want it it would be great but im thinkin it maight take more ram and processin power i hope it doesnt over do it now chrome barely takes anything and its really fast regardless of internet im talking about loadin speed and such

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