5 ms·

Core Web Vitals saved users 10k years of waiting for web pages to load

49 points by feross 3y ago

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
Osmose 3y ago
"Look at the good we can do when we wield our monopoly." isn't really the brag that Google seems to think it is.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
yellow_lead 3y ago
In this article, Google pretends to prioritize user convenience while running an ads business, trying to hide that they're ads as much as possible, and even getting their users infected with spyware.
- cheschire 3y ago
  "Our CWV product team is underperforming on our projections. Let's write a FOMO puff piece on this to generate more interest in target product teams."
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
trebor 3y ago
I bet this is less time than my uBlock Origin rules have saved me. <_<
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
iteratethis 3y ago
"How Google Tag Manager added back 100K years of waiting for web pages to load and further set the planet on fire"
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
simbolit 3y ago
In the 90s I had to wait for every webpage to load, every time. In the early 00s, it got a little faster, but still, a lot of waiting. Yet, somehow, the web was a much more pleasant experience.
- thih9 3y ago
  To be fair, 2000s had flash, full page reloads and IE, which I didn’t enjoy. No objection about early 2010s though — less flash, just enough ajax, firefox usage at an all time high at ~30%, and higher than chrome. Coincidentally in 2015 Google removed “don’t be evil” from their motto[1]. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil
- barryrandall 3y ago
  Maybe adding 20k lines of JavaScript to every page just to hide page refreshes wasn't such a great idea?
  - endemic 3y ago
    The users expect it! Superior developer experience! Don't question the dogma!
- encom 3y ago
  I too miss the days of the WWW being document oriented.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- _xivi 3y ago
  You can visit old pages/forums with today connection speed. No visible loading, no cookie banner. The website just load instantly, almost as fast as the default page, especially with an ad blocker. It never fail to put a smile on my face.
crowcroft 3y ago
What about the flow on impact this has for SEO though. Older content is MUCH harder to find because the web service supporting it doesn't support some new standard from Google and we lose access to a lot of niche sites. Then we also have the challenge that it's harder to crawl and rank new content en masse... Hard to say for sure of this is overall a net positive if you look across a range of different metrics, it's probably never been more debatable about whether Google knows best.
- eyelidlessness 3y ago
  Core Web Vitals aren’t a standard that sites need to adopt, in the sense you seem to mean. They’re a set of (mostly performance) metrics which quantify specific aspects of a website each with some presumed impact on user experience. Older content doesn’t need any particular action taken to be measured on these metrics, and in many cases may actually perform rather well (based on certain assumptions about said older content). That Google may (and often does) rank older content poorly is definitely a concern in its own right, but it’s probably not a concern relevant to CWV.
  - crowcroft 3y ago
    Yes, agreed. I'm kinda conflating the two things. This issue isn't so much 'adoption' of something like core web vitals, but just the fact that doing well on these standards impact ranking (and therefore older content ranks poorly).
sccxy 3y ago
This page does not work with iOS Firefox Focus. Only logo is loaded.
- endemic 3y ago
  That's a feature!
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
croes 3y ago
How many years have users lost because of unskippable ads?
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
lemagedurage 3y ago
It's nice to see the emphasis on performance. Google didn't have to do that, but they did. Even though I'm sure this will indirectly contribute to Google's revenue, it seems to me that the web users are the direct winners here. The web Vitals metrics seem reasonable as well. Ironically, adding gtag.js/Google analytics to a website brings the speed score down significantly in my experience.
- goenning 3y ago
  If websites are faster, it takes less time/resource for them to crawl the internet.
tech234a 3y ago
SponsorBlock has used crowdsourced timestamps to save users more than 2k years of viewing sponsors and other segments in YouTube videos [1]. [1]: https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- qup 3y ago
  and probably has like a 2% market penetration there's just a seriously large amount of those ads doing God's work
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
xigoi 3y ago
I wonder how many years would be saved by removing Google ads, Google analytics, Google recaptcha, etc.

49 points by feross 3y ago

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

Osmose 3y ago

"Look at the good we can do when we wield our monopoly." isn't really the brag that Google seems to think it is.

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

yellow_lead 3y ago

In this article, Google pretends to prioritize user convenience while running an ads business, trying to hide that they're ads as much as possible, and even getting their users infected with spyware.

cheschire 3y ago
"Our CWV product team is underperforming on our projections. Let's write a FOMO puff piece on this to generate more interest in target product teams."
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

trebor 3y ago

I bet this is less time than my uBlock Origin rules have saved me. <_<

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

iteratethis 3y ago

"How Google Tag Manager added back 100K years of waiting for web pages to load and further set the planet on fire"

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

simbolit 3y ago

In the 90s I had to wait for every webpage to load, every time. In the early 00s, it got a little faster, but still, a lot of waiting. Yet, somehow, the web was a much more pleasant experience.

thih9 3y ago
To be fair, 2000s had flash, full page reloads and IE, which I didn’t enjoy. No objection about early 2010s though — less flash, just enough ajax, firefox usage at an all time high at ~30%, and higher than chrome. Coincidentally in 2015 Google removed “don’t be evil” from their motto[1]. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Don't_be_evil
barryrandall 3y ago
Maybe adding 20k lines of JavaScript to every page just to hide page refreshes wasn't such a great idea?
- endemic 3y ago
  The users expect it! Superior developer experience! Don't question the dogma!
encom 3y ago
I too miss the days of the WWW being document oriented.
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
_xivi 3y ago
You can visit old pages/forums with today connection speed. No visible loading, no cookie banner. The website just load instantly, almost as fast as the default page, especially with an ad blocker. It never fail to put a smile on my face.

crowcroft 3y ago

What about the flow on impact this has for SEO though. Older content is MUCH harder to find because the web service supporting it doesn't support some new standard from Google and we lose access to a lot of niche sites. Then we also have the challenge that it's harder to crawl and rank new content en masse... Hard to say for sure of this is overall a net positive if you look across a range of different metrics, it's probably never been more debatable about whether Google knows best.

eyelidlessness 3y ago
Core Web Vitals aren’t a standard that sites need to adopt, in the sense you seem to mean. They’re a set of (mostly performance) metrics which quantify specific aspects of a website each with some presumed impact on user experience. Older content doesn’t need any particular action taken to be measured on these metrics, and in many cases may actually perform rather well (based on certain assumptions about said older content). That Google may (and often does) rank older content poorly is definitely a concern in its own right, but it’s probably not a concern relevant to CWV.
- crowcroft 3y ago
  Yes, agreed. I'm kinda conflating the two things. This issue isn't so much 'adoption' of something like core web vitals, but just the fact that doing well on these standards impact ranking (and therefore older content ranks poorly).

sccxy 3y ago

This page does not work with iOS Firefox Focus. Only logo is loaded.

endemic 3y ago
That's a feature!
deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

croes 3y ago

How many years have users lost because of unskippable ads?

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]

lemagedurage 3y ago

It's nice to see the emphasis on performance. Google didn't have to do that, but they did. Even though I'm sure this will indirectly contribute to Google's revenue, it seems to me that the web users are the direct winners here. The web Vitals metrics seem reasonable as well. Ironically, adding gtag.js/Google analytics to a website brings the speed score down significantly in my experience.

goenning 3y ago
If websites are faster, it takes less time/resource for them to crawl the internet.

tech234a 3y ago

SponsorBlock has used crowdsourced timestamps to save users more than 2k years of viewing sponsors and other segments in YouTube videos [1]. [1]: https://sponsor.ajay.app/ https://sponsor.ajay.app/

deleted 3y ago
[deleted]
qup 3y ago
and probably has like a 2% market penetration there's just a seriously large amount of those ads doing God's work

deleted 3y ago

[deleted]

xigoi 3y ago

I wonder how many years would be saved by removing Google ads, Google analytics, Google recaptcha, etc.