14 DAY TRIAL // Google is rolling out a small change to the mobile search site that should result in a significant and consistent speed improvement when tapping on any of the results.
Google now uses the <a ping> attribute for the browsers that support it, making it possible to direct users straight to the site listed in the results rather than having them go through a Google redirect first.
Currently, clicking or tapping on a result on a Google search page directs users to a Google URL which then redirects them to the proper website. This happens very fast and isn't noticed by most people, but it does add a delay between clicking on the link and the site starting to load.
Google does this redirect so it can track what users clicked on, to improve ranking, provide stats to websites, and so on. But it adds 200 to 400 milliseconds to the loading time of any result.
So the company has decided to remove the redirect on mobile devices and use "ping" instead to keep track of what users are tapping on.
The standard results link now, for mobile Chrome and Safari, the only ones which support "ping," point directly to the site listed in the results, as you can see in the image above, but also pings a Google URL to let the search engine know which result you chose.
The <a ping> attribute was designed to make it possible to "ping" other URLs when you clicked on a link. The ping is asynchronous, so the page in the "href" starts loading instantly. In parallel, a request is sent to the URLs listed in the "ping" field.
"Google mobile search is getting faster - to be exact, 200-400 milliseconds faster! We are gradually rolling out this improvement to all browsers that support the <a ping> attribute (currently, mobile Chrome and Safari)," Google's Ilya Grigorik announced.
"What's the benefit? Whenever the user clicks on a result, typically they are first sent to a Google URL redirector and then to the target site. With <a ping>, the click is tracked using an asynchronous call, meaning that the user sees one less redirect and a faster overall experience," he added.