Google is currently testing a change for Chrome 148 that could accelerate your daily browsing by implementing lazy loading for video and audio elements, according to PCWorld. This update is in development and is expected to roll out in mid-April.
If you’re not familiar with lazy loading, it’s a feature that postpones the loading of non-essential, off-screen resources until they are actually needed. This leads to improved page load performance and reduced bandwidth usage.
For example, imagine visiting a website that contains many images. Typically, all elements of the page need to be loaded before you can interact with it.
In contrast, lazy loading only loads images that are currently in view, deferring the loading of those not yet visible until you scroll down. This approach allows the page to load more quickly.
Currently, built-in lazy loading in Chrome and other Chromium-based browsers only supports images and iframes. The proposed update would extend this support to include video and audio elements.
However, this change will not affect YouTube video embeds, as lazy loading is already applied to them because they are embedded using iframes.
Lazy loading is scheduled to be enabled for all users across various platforms, including desktop, Android, and iOS. The announcement also suggests that this feature will be made available on other Chromium browsers, such as Edge and Vivaldi.
Google is also addressing a significant issue with Chrome’s split-view feature. The update will move the option in the context menu and modify the drag-and-drop thresholds that trigger it.