Brief:
- Google plans to identify websites that don't download quickly with badges as part of its effort to improve the user experience (UX) of its Chrome web browser. The criteria will get increasingly stringent, with a long-term goal of marking high-quality experiences with badges that consider qualities other than speed, per a company blog post.
- The search giant recommends websites optimize their websites now as it seeks a standard that's achievable by all web developers. The company mentioned online resources to help developers evaluate the performance of their websites, including its online tool, called PageSpeed Insights, that shows speed data for a website, and Lighthouse, a software tool offering personalized advice on website improvements.
- Google announced the badging system as part of other initiatives discussed at its Chrome Developer Summit this week in San Francisco. The company previewed "web bundles" that lets developers distribute content in any format, such as email, FTP or USB, at faster speeds. Among other announcements, Google published a collaborative effort called The Web Almanac to give developers a broader view of the web's condition.
Insight:
Most of Google's announcements at the Chrome Developer Summit are aimed at web developers who work for brands or ad agencies. It's important for mobile marketers to be aware of the company's plans given the massive reach of Chrome, which commands about 60% of the mobile internet browser market, per Statista.
Google's planned badging system for websites aims to compel web developers to boost the performance of their websites, especially as mobile apps provide a better UX for many consumers who grow impatient with slow download times or buggy software. Of course, Google depends on a well-functioning internet to drive ad revenue for platforms like Google AdWords, which places display ads on a broader network of third-party websites. Developers have been warned that they need to improve their websites or Google will label them with a badge that notifies users of a poor-quality web experience.
In developing markets, many internet users view the web as a mobile-first experience, and Google also is seeing more cross-device competing among younger users. The company aims to create frictionless web experiences with SMS Receiver, which lets web apps retrieve two-factor SMS messages; Contact Picker, which lets people share internet content among contact lists to bring social media and communication capabilities to web apps; and a Native File System API that lets web apps read or save changes directly to files and folders on a user's device. The API aims to help developers build powerful web apps that interact with files on a user's local device.
After creating Lighthouse Stack Packs for WordPress and React that support developers in building faster websites, Google this week expanded the effort to include Angular, accelerated mobile pages (AMP) and Magento, the open source e-commerce platform that Adobe bought last year. The goal is to help website developers see more actionable insights among a wider variety of website authoring tools, per its blog post.
Six months ago, Google used its annual I/O developers conference to highlight updates to other technologies, including plans to show search results in augmented reality to help smartphone users see more vivid imagery when looking for information. The company also updated Google Lens, which uses artificial intelligence to identify objects with a smartphone camera, with new features like visual language translation of signs and video demonstrations of recipes seen in magazines.
