Google [GOOG] is launching a new image format called WebP. What WebP does is squashes down the file size of images to make them smaller, hence, a quicker download for users.
The aim of Google is to make the web faster and this is just another step to make this happen. Typically, the webP format can reduce the file size of a JPEG image by about 40% making images a lot smaller in file size. However, with this format, not much changes in image quality with it not really even being noticable. It’s a bonus in both ways for the end user (and webmaster who pays out for bandwidth usage on his hosting account).
Another interesting thing to note is that 65 percent of traffic on the internet is image traffic according to Google. Cut image sizes down by 40% on average and you have a lot of bandwidth savings.
Google has a lot of work though to make webP a common standard. No graphics package, camera or any other device uses the format. We suspect though that when it is launched that gradually manufacturers and publishers will start to switch over to save costs on bandwidth and make the browsing experience quicker for users.
More details and a more in-depth look at the web-m format can also be found at CNET.
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