HomeBlogNew Google Chrome Preloads the Next Predicted Page

New Google Chrome Preloads the Next Predicted Page

Published August 24, 2011

I'm currently on Google Chrome 13 and just noticed the web page preloading in a real life scenario. You can reproduce the effect and try it yourself by following these steps:

  1. Go to Google.com
    You must be using Chrome 13
  2. Type "USA Today" in the box
  3. Press Enter
  4. Press the down arrow on your keyboard one time to move the arrow next to the first non-sponsored search result, which should point to usatoday.com
  5. Wait about 4-5 seconds and then press enter or click the link with your mouse - get your eyes ready to watch how fast the page appears
  6. In a fraction of a second, the web page appears with everything already loaded, as if you were already there!

To prove that it is pre-loading you can go back to google.com and clear your browser's cache and then repeat the steps.  You can compare results by performing the same steps in Mozilla Firefox and all elements on the page will not be loaded until you visit the page. 

This does not seem to work on all websites, and may depend on the site's popularity or the webmaster's setting to prevent preloading. Some webmasters may want to prevent Chrome from preloading their site, especially if it means using up bandwidth when the user might not even visit. However if it is enabled and the user does visit your site, even the ads will appear faster!

It seems to be just another chapter in Google's goal of making the web faster for users.

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Michael Butler

Michael Butler

Michael joined the RustyBrick team in 2008 to focus on transitioning existing web sites to new & enhanced platforms. He graduated from Rutgers University in 2005 and holds a B.S. in Computer Science.

This article is under Web Programming

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