3 ms·
I currently disable DNS prefetching and "using web services to improve my browsing experience". This is yet another feature that will go on my black list. Firs
by tga 15y ago
I currently disable DNS prefetching and "using web services to improve my browsing experience". This is yet another feature that will go on my black list.
First and foremost, I think they are solving a problem nobody has, potentially for "my Chrome is faster than your Firefox" points. I do not mind waiting an extra 300ms for having a modicum of control over what my browser does. I don't know about others, but page loading is not usually something I even notice anymore.
Secondly, fully rendering sites I never visit, including script execution, seems like a seriously bad idea. This turns a mildly annoying while slightly beneficial feature (loading resources in the background) into a monster, especially when combined with abominations like ro.me on autoplay.
Thirdly, I could imagine scenarios in which my Google searches would be leaking this way to sites that have no business seeing my traffic.
I realize that what they are currently talking about is opt-in, but can only hope that in time this feature won't be picked up by the other browsers and become the silent default for everyone.
- DavidSJ 15y agoI do not mind waiting an extra 300ms for having a modicum of control over what my browser does. Your point is still legitimate, but the 1,100 ms (not 300 ms) in that photo which you refer to is the time to serve the search query results, not time to load the page you then click on, which usually takes a number of seconds more.
- tga 15y agoPoint taken, I was going for dramatic effect there. Rendering the page, after selecting the result, does take a lot longer (6s for something like the BBC home page here) but I still maintain that it's largely invisible and not something most users would complain about or even notice.
- DavidSJ 15y agoSpeed is invisible before you have it, and once you have it. It's when it gets taken away again that you notice.
- dedward 15y agoYou say you don't mind 300ms in exchange for control over what your browser does. Wearing my technology and privacy conscious security USER hat, I agree completely. As a webmaster for a site where retention and "stickiness" are critical, I can say without hesitation that those 300ms are potentially HUGE. For the vast majority of the users coming into a site who are unaware of these things, faster page load times make a huge difference in retention and repeat visits. People unconsciously like pages that appear faster. Ask them WHY they like one site over the other, they probably won't say it's the speed, but the stats say otherwise.