Google launches WebP
To make page loading faster, Google has launched a new image format called WebP which reduces file size of images without compromising with the quality.
From a very long time web developers were worrying to reduce the page loading time as it makes the use annoyed. The main reason for slower page loading are images though the connection speed also plays important role but from the developer side only images can be customized so that the page loading becomes faster.
To make page loading faster, Google has launched a new image format called WebP which is intended to reduce the file size of images without compromising with the quality.
Google’s tests, which involved converting a million images, show that the format delivers an average reduction in file size of 39 percent, reports Ryan Paul of Ars Technica.
The WebP format relies on the still image compression methods that the VP8 video codec uses to compress each frame.
“We applied the techniques from VP8 video intra frame coding to push the envelope in still image coding. We also adapted a very lightweight container based on RIFF. While this container format contributes a minimal overhead of only 20 bytes per image, it is extensible to allow authors to save meta-data they would like to store,” says Richard Rabbat, Product Manager, Google.
When Google had acquired a media technology company On2 last year, it had obtained the VP8 video codec. At a later stage, Google opened the source code of the standard VP8 implementation and launched WebM which depends on VP8 and Ogg Vorbis.