Taking Chrome to Lite speeds

When we created Chrome, we focused on speed, simplicity, and security as its hallmark traits. Today, we’re proud to announce a new extension for Chrome, called ChromeLite, which is a giant, sprightly leap ahead on all three fronts.

In our never-ending quest for speed, our team members recently gathered to race the latest and greatest browser versions against each other. Much to our surprise, the winning browser was neither the latest version of Chrome nor another modern browser, but was instead an early text-based browser called Lynx.

Inspired by Lynx’s approach, we decided to experiment with stripping out all the extraneous details of a web page to accelerate page load time by removing a web page’s formatting, colors, images, audio, and video. The end result? ChromeLite — the extension which brings you the web as it was originally conceived: nothing but pure text, presented in an aesthetically pleasing monochrome palette.

ChromeLite dramatically simplifies the user experience of web browsing by rendering the entire web in plain text. Users won’t have to worry about various media codecs and browser plug-ins to view much of the content on the web today. Preliminary analysis by our top-notch security team also suggests that running ChromeLite reduces your susceptibility to targeted exploits on the web by removing a popular attack surface: color.

In short, we hope ChromeLite gives all users on the web yet another option to safely and speedily enjoy the web in all its pure, unadulterated simplicity. If you’re looking to get your fingers accustomed to these new blazing speeds once you’ve installed ChromeLite, check out our newly developed Chromercise regimen.

Bing Maps v. 7 tops the AJAX performance charts

As independent interactive mapping experts, Earthware prides itself in making recommendations to clients on the best mapping platform to use for their specific project. Whilst we consider a number of factors of each mapping platform, a key factor is the performance of each mapping platform, both in speed of download and also speed of displaying information on the map.

Recently Bing has released a new version of their AJAX map control, specifically mentioned improvements to the mobile experience and performance as two of their new features. In this article,Earthware will share our experiences comparing the performance of Bing Maps AJAX version 7 with the previous version 6.3.

Download sizes

The first performance metric we have compared is how long each version takes to download the files it needs to display a basic map. This is primarily affected by the size of the files specific to each platform downloads to the client’s browser. We tested both the current, and previous, versions of the Bing Maps platform and included the file sizes of all the javascript, css and image files needed for a basic map to be displayed. The chart below shows the results of these tests.

The diagram above shows just how large a difference in file size there was to load version 6.3 when compared to the reduced feature Bing Maps version 6.3 “core” control. However the latest Bing Maps release 7 employs a much smaller download requirement due to the decrease in file size and clearly now leads the field when compared to its predecessors.

With various research studies showing a strong correlation between the time it takes your page to load, and visitor loss rate, combined with the increase in users viewing sites over mobile connections, even the smallest of differences in download sizes are an important consideration.

Map Data Loading Performance

The second performance criteria we have compared is time required for each platform to load, and display, different numbers of pushpins on the map. As this is greatly affected by the browser you are using, we have tested this in the latest (at the time of testing), non-beta, version of each of the major browsers. We have tested Bing Maps version 7 versus Bing Maps version 6 allowing us to show the progress of the Bing Maps platform between version.

The test conducted recorded how long it takes to add 1, 10, 100, 500 and 1000 pushpins to the map. Whilst plotting 1,000 pushpins on the map is probably not a sensible idea from a usability point of view, it does help demonstrate how well each platform reacts under pressure.

These charts clearly demonstrate that Bing Maps version 7 is a significant improvement in performance over its predecessor. It clearly demonstrates that irrespective of the browser, the performance order of the two different versions is consistent with Bing Maps version 7 outperforming the other 6.3 in the test (and especially so in IE8 and Firefox).

What do these results show?

Although the two performance factors compared in these tests are not the only performance factors worthy of consideration, these results are clearly indicative of relative performance. If performance is a key factor when choosing a mapping platform, these results would certainly indicate that the recent commitment by the Bing Maps development team to improve performance means that Bing Maps appears to lead the way in AJAX mapping platforms.

At Earthware we have recently experienced more pressure from clients to make their mapping work well in mobile environments. These results help us to feel confidence in making a recommendation for the new Bing Maps AJAX platform for projects where performance is the primary consideration.

Try these tests for yourself

If you want to try the map data loading tests for yourself on your own machine the source code is available to download at http://mapperftests.codeplex.com

Register for Google I/O 2011

We’ve been counting down the days until Google I/O 2011 and hope that you have been, too. With 91 days, 22 hours and 45 minutes to go, we’re excited to announce that registration is now open at www.google.com/io. Our largest annual developer conference will take place on May 10-11, 2011 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Calif.

The focus of I/O 2011 will be all about the cloud, and feature the latest Google products and technologies including Android, Google Chrome, App Engine, Google Web Toolkit and Google APIs. There will be many opportunities to meet members of Google’s engineering teams and take deep dives into the technologies with more than 100 technical sessions, roundtables and more. The Developer Sandbox, which we introduced at I/O 2009, will be back, featuring developers from more than 100 companies to demo their apps, share their experiences and exchange ideas.

If you liked our HTML5 countdown, stay tuned for more surprises. We’ll keep you posted on the latest developments for Google I/O 2011 at the website, on Twitter (@Googleio) and Google Buzz. Get your tickets early—last year we sold out in record time!

Registration opens with an Early Bird rate of $450, which applies through April 16 ($550 after April 16). Faculty and students can register at the discounted Academia rate of $150, which will be allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

Learn more and register today at www.google.com/io.