After SPDY, Google to Replace UDP with QUIC

A few years ago, Google introduced SPDY, a new web protocol designed to do what its name says, speed up the web.

It seemed like a bold move at the time, but it's now on its way to becoming the basis for HTTP 2.0, the first major revision of the technology that underpins the web.

SPDY isn't a completely new protocol, it's more of an improved HTTP, though some changes aren't insignificant.

But now, Google plans to dig deeper and revamp the internet at the lower level with QUIC, a new protocol designed to replace UDP, just like SPDY aims to replace HTTP.

If the name didn't give it away, the emphasis is once again on speed. UDP is a networking protocol that's used extensively on the web, though not as much as TCP.

UDP is preferred for specialized applications rather than general purpose apps like web browsers.

There's not much to go on for now, but Google has landed the code to support QUIC in Chrome. That implies that it's got the server code ready, possibly even in use at Google. Apart from performance, encryption is also a big part of Google's revamp of UDP.