14 DAY TRIAL // Google is taking a page out of the Internet Explorer 9 book, with the introduction of a fresh Chrome release designed to support performance measuring in web pages, just as Microsoft’s next generation of IE. It has been over a month since the Redmond company offered early adopters and developers Platform Preview 3 of IE9, which brought to the table the implementation of the Web Timing specification. Google Chrome 6.0.472.11 Dev is now available for download from the Mountain View-based search giant, having embraced the same standard set of metrics for measuring web page load time across browsers as IE9.
In all fairness, Microsoft, Google, the WebKit team and Mozilla have all worked together in order to provide an interoperable API (application programing interface) in their browsers with the Web Timing specification at the core. IE9 Platform Preview 3 and Google Chrome 6.0.472.11 Dev already offer developers the possibility to test drive the speed at which their web pages load, and Mozilla is working to do the same with Firefox.
Developers running Chrome 6.0.472.11 Dev will be able to access the new web page performance metrics under window.webkitPerformance. Similarly, those that rely on Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview 3 will be able to do the same with under window.msPerformance.
“Web Timing now gives developers the ability to measure the true page load time by including the time to request, generate, and receive the HTML document. The timeline [on the left] illustrates the metrics it provides. The vertical line labeled "Legacy navigation started" is the earliest time a web page can reliably measure without Web Timing. In this case, instead of a misleading 80ms load time, it is now possible to see that the user actually experienced a 274ms time. Including this missing phase will make your measurements appear to increase. It’s not because pages are getting slower – we’re just getting a better view on where the time is actually being spent,” noted Tony Gentilcore, Software Engineer.
“The specification is still being finalized, so expect slight changes before the browser prefixes are dropped. If you’re running a supported browser, please try the Web Timing demonstration and send us feedback,” Gentilcore added.
Google Chrome 6.0.472.11 Dev is available for download here. Internet Explorer 9 (IE9) Platform Preview 3 Build 1.9.7.8.74.6000 is available for download here.
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