The Next Chrome Will Load Your Next Link For You

Google's Chrome browser is very much engineered for speed. Software optimizations can only take you so far until the bottleneck becomes latency and bandwidth of your connection.

In the next version of Chrome, Google will be employing a background pre-loading trick that many other web accelerators have been using for years. Google says that it has an algorithm to know when Chrome can confidently preload the top search result so that when it's clicked, it will load instantly.

Google describes it in a blog post:

What is prerendering? Sometimes a site may be able to predict with reasonable accuracy which link the user is most likely to click on next--for example, the 'next page' link in a multi-page news article. In those cases, it would be faster and better for the user if the browser could get a head start loading the next page so that when the user clicks the page is already well on its way to being loaded. That's the fundamental idea behind prerendering. The browser fetches all of the sub-resources and does all of the work necessary to display the page. In many cases, the site simply seems to load instantly when the user clicks. Although Google.com is the most high profile site to use prerendering, it's a technology that is available to any site. Triggering prerendering well, however, is challenging to do correctly and will only be useful to a handful of sites that have a high degree of certainty of where their users will click next. Triggering prerendering for the wrong site could lead to the link the user did click on loading more slowly.

Instant pages will be in the next version of Chrome, but those who are adventurous can try a developer version here.

Check out the video on it below:

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Marcus Yam is a technology evangelist for Intel Corporation, the latest in a long line of tech-focused roles spanning a more than 20-year career in the industry. As Executive Editor, News on Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, Marcus was responsible for shaping the sites' news output, and he also spent a period as Editor of Outdoors & Sports at Digital Trends.

  • burnley14
    Really cool idea if they can make it work well, but probably not so good for those with bandwith caps as it will be loading pages they don't even access.
    Reply
  • masterasia
    I love Chrome....but it needs a damn print preview. How hard is that to add. I know there's the IE plugin, but I don't want anything to do with IE. Google has some of the smartest programmers on the planet and they can't figure out how to do a print preview?!?
    Reply
  • phatboe
    The main reason why I stay away from Chrome is because it phones home after every key stroke. That is exactly how this new feature works. Google now knows every website you visit how long you stay there and what time in the day you visit. Yeah the browser might load pages 5s faster but is it worth them snooping on everything you do? I just don't think so.
    Reply
  • Masterasia:

    There's a functioning print preview in the current beta version. It works by rendering a PDF of the web page. Works pretty well.
    Reply
  • freggo
    Not sure if this is such a good idea. This generates an awful lot of extra traffic (i.e. more congestion) and -if you are on a dataplan- uses up your available Gigs. Only if Google indeed managest a substantial hitrate would this work.
    Giving us more SPEED like other world countries have would be the better way to go.
    Reply
  • lukeeu
    This will break my bank webpage... also automatic clicking on "delete" and "accept" links.... meah... I'll stick with opera.
    Reply
  • sceen311
    as long as I can turn it off, it's a good idea.

    I really don't mind waiting 1-2 sec for the next page to load.
    Reply
  • koga73
    Please no!
    A good idea in theory... until the next page that it preloads is malicious. This completely takes the user out of the equation which eliminates common sense security!

    (and i dont want google to determine which sites are "safe" for me before preloading either)
    Reply
  • caguaman
    Nothing like Safari on my Imac. When I go to the coffee shop its instant load on every page
    Reply
  • blevsta
    I wonder if this would accidentally purchase something from an online store? IE: Everyone clicks "submit order" button at a certain page, so chrome assumes it should preload that page, automatically confirming your purchase before you've reviewed it. May be some fun bugs for the first few months. :)
    Reply