14 DAY TRIAL // YSlow, Yahoo's website optimization tool, is now available as a Chrome extension as well. YSlow has been available for Firefox users for a few years. Porting it to Chrome enables more webmasters to access the tool from the browser of their choice.
YSlow for Chrome is essentially the same as the Firefox version, at least visually and in terms of features, but it differs internally since Chrome does not allow extensions to access its network panel.
"YSlow ranks in the Top 25 for Best of 2 Billion Firefox Add-ons downloaded so far. We are very proud of where YSlow stands today and we continue to work hard to take it to the next level," Yahoo's Swapnil Shinde wrote.
"Today's another 'Hello World!' moment for YSlow. We are very excited to announce the beta release of YSlow for Chrome. YSlow looks beautiful inside the Chrome browser," he added.
If you've been using YSlow in Firefox, you'll be very familiar with the Chrome version which, thankfully, doesn't deviate too much from the original one, in terms of layout and UI, meaning that you'll be able to jump right in.
There are some new features as well, one that it still labeled as experimental enables YSlow to detect whether the page you're trying to test prevents itself from being loaded in an iframe.
YSlow for Chrome comes with three rulesets, the Default YSlow V2, Classic V1, and Small Site or Blog. These look at different factors and may grade differently. You can also create your own custom rulesets based on these three.
There is also the possibility to run several YSlow instances at the same time. If you're Firefox add-ons have been holding you back from switching, now you have one less reason.
"The current version of Chrome does not provide access to its network panel. As a result, we have relied on Ajax calls to do most of the heavy lifting for us. Hence, some rules might be affected thus, fluctuating the grades a bit if you compare them with the Firefox version," Shinde warns. YSlow for Google Chrome is available for download here. YSlow for Mozilla Firefox is available for download here.