The proposed rewrite of the web's backbone comes with both benefits and caveats
Posted 11.13.2009 at 1:58 pm
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Faster Internet Google's Chromium group wants to boost your Internet browsing
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Google has scarcely stopped for a breather since launching its cloud-based Chrome OS as an alternative to PC and Mac operating systems. Now its Chromium group has announced an effort to replace the traditional HTTP web browser language with a new protocol that supposedly boosts Internet browsing by up to 55 percent.
HTTP currently is the protocol used by all web servers and browsers, hence the "http" in front of web addresses. But, as noted by Ars Technica, HTTP becomes inefficient when transferring many small files on many modern websites.
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Technology, Jeremy Hsu, browsers, computers, CPU, google, http, Internet, protocols, servers, spdy, ssl, web, web languagesSPDY has shown up to 55 percent web page loading when tested under lab conditions, and the Google team has released their source code for public feedback.
But Ars Technica raises some points of caution about the mandatory SSL encryption requiring more processing power from small devices and computers alike. Requiring SSL could also worsen the problem where server operators neglect SSL encryption and unintentionally encourage people to ignore warnings about unsecured websites.
Still Google's team recognizes these problems and has already proposed workaround solutions. An open approach has already proven a smashing success on Google's Android operating system, but redesigning the Internet's architecture will undoubtedly prove trickier in the days to come.
[via Ars Technica and Webmonkey]
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I love the logo sooo much.
Google: taking over everything since 2007.
The logo reminds me too much of the Pokeman ball. I hate Pokeman.
I have a few questions about this proposal.
1. How does the Big G plan to profit from this concept? Before I sign on, I'd like to know if their strategy will have a negative impact on me. (I'm not against capitalism, I just want to know the business model.)
2. Is the speed improvement limited to the many small files scenario? If so, is that a mainstream mode? Also, are other operational modes worse with this system?
3. Will this limit the browser choices?
4. Will there be compatibility issues that affect access to http websites? How about access to web pages that have been locally saved?
In my business I deal with degital file uploading and downloading; I think I'm going to like that SSL idea.
@ford2go: I'm not an insider (to SPDY) but here's my take on questions 2 and 4:
Q2. The advantage of SPDY is that the amount needed connections is reduced to only one. This leads to a definitive improvement in overall performance, as a lot of the overhead in traffic consists of opening and closing of connections. This will not significantly improve transfer rates for large binary files, except in an indirect way (as reducing the amount of connections frees up bandwidth).
Q4. I think you are asking the wrong question, kind of. SPDY and HTTP are separate protocols altogether, and I don't see any particular reason why a SPDY capable browser wouldn't be able to handle HTTP also.
"by up to 55 percent" != "twice as fast"
it's half as fast. Twice as fast would be "by up to 200%" unless i'm missing something
You really are missing something. The word increase. "Increasing by up to" means adding to the current which would be 100%, and increasing by up to 200% would make it three times as fast as the original.
my only concerns are for the security features. are we going to experience new holes in our internet browsers?
No, darcon77 is right. A 55% increase does not equal twice as fast. It equals 155% vs 100% or running at 1 1/2 times the speed. Come on people.