Microsoft is working on a new feature for Google Chrome that will improve the speed of Chrome’s internal pages on Windows, Linux, macOS and other desktop platforms. The feature enables instantaneous page loading when users navigate between internal pages of the browser like the new tab page.
In a new Chromium code commit, Microsoft revealed that it’s working on a new “code caching” for scripts fetched via the chrome:// protocol.
“After loading and executing a script, V8 can serialize the interpreter bytecode which was generated for that script. Later, if Blink tells V8 to run the same script again, and provides the previously serialized bytecode, then V8 can skip the initial parsing step and the script runs faster. This is important for page load time,” Microsoft said.
Chromium-based browsers like Chrome and Edge include some large scripts in WebUI pages, and WebUI is used for some common scenarios like the new tab page. Using a prototype implementation of a new feature, Microsoft has observed a reduction of 11-20% on time to first contentful paint on the new tab page.
Currently, many WebUI data sources opt out of using the network cache and response time is not a meaningful indicator of whether the script’s content has changed, and the response-time comparison always rejects any data from the bytecode cache.
“The feature is currently disabled by default and can be enabled by launching with –enable-features=WebUICodeCache. A subsequent change will add configuration for a field trial,” Microsoft noted.
Caching improvements for Chrome
Additionally, Google is also working on an update for its web browser that will improve the loading speed of webpages. This feature is called “back-forward cache” on desktop and it’s rolling out with Google Chrome 92 for some users.
For those unfamiliar, the feature has long been available on Android, and it allows users to load pages almost instantly they click the “back” or “forward” buttons. The company has been testing the feature for nearly two years and it’s finally rolling out in stages, but it won’t show up on all devices at the moment.
This feature attempts to keep a page alive when the user navigates away and visits the same page again via session history navigation (browser back/forward buttons, history.back() etc.
According to Google group discussion, a precise release date has not yet been determined and only some users will be getting in Chrome 92. A wider rollout is expected to begin later this year.
“We’d like to start an experimental rollout from M92, and expand the coverage as we go,” the company said.
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