Speed has been a core tenet of Chrome since the beginning – we’ve always strived to give users an experience that’s fast as they browse the web. In fact, we’ve visited every website we thought would load quickly, only to be met with an experience that could have been better. We think the web can do better and want to help users understand when a website might be loading slowly, while rewarding websites that deliver fast experiences.
In the future, Chrome will be able to identify websites that typically load quickly or slowly with clear marking for users. This can take a variety of forms, and we plan to experiment with different optionsto determine which ones provide the most value to our users.
Badging aims to identify when websites are built in a way that makes them slow overall by looking at historical load times. We can further extend this to include identifying when a page is likely to be slow for a user based on device and network conditions.
Our first explorations will examine a number of Chrome surfaces, including the loading screen (startup screen), the loading progress bar, and the context menu for links . The latter could allow for a glimpse into typical website speeds , so you know before you navigate
Our plan to identify sites that are fast or slow will be done in incremental steps, based on strict criteria. Our long-term goal is to define badging for high- quality, which may include details beyond speed.
We're building speed badging in close collaboration with other teams exploring labeling the quality of experiences on Google. We believe this will ensure that if you optimize your site for speed, site won't drift from one surface to another.
We are very careful with our approach to setting the bar for what is considered a good user experience and hope to transform it into something that is practically achievable by all developers. We will post updates on this plan as we approach future releases, but don't wait to optimize your site. There are plenty of resources to learn about the opportunities available to improve your site's speed.
To evaluate performance, check:
- PageSpeed Insights, an online tool that displays speed metrics for your website, along with suggestions for common optimizations to improve it.
- Lighthouse, a lab tool that provides personalized advice on how to improve your website in terms of performance and other best practices.
To learn about performance, check out web.dev/fast – the platform with guides and codes on how to make your pages load fast.
