Chromium Blog: August 2020

Chrome just got faster with Profile Guided Optimization

Tuesday, August 25, 2020

From the very beginning, we built Chrome to be the fastest browser possible. The faster Chrome is, the faster you find the information you want or finish the task you need to do. With M85, users will find a noticeably faster Chrome, thanks to our two latest improvements: Profile Guided Optimization, which delivers up to 10% faster page loads; and Tab Throttling, which helps reduce the impact of idle background tabs, coming to the Beta channel.

Profile Guided Optimization

Simplified, Profile Guided Optimization (PGO) is a compiler optimization technique where the most performance-critical parts of the code can run faster. Because PGO uses real usage scenarios that match the workflows of Chrome users around the world, the most common tasks get prioritized and made faster. It is rolling out with Chrome M85 on Mac and Windows.

PGO was initially introduced in M53 for Chrome on Windows using Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC), our previous build environment. In M85, we are rolling out PGO on Mac and Windows using Clang. Our testing consistently shows pages loading up to 10% faster at the median, and even greater speed improvements when your CPU is tasked with running many tabs or programs.

Platform	Browser Responsiveness*	First Contentful Paint**	Speedometer 2.0
Mac	3.9% faster	2.3% faster	7.7% faster
Windows	7.3% faster	3.5% faster	11.4% faster

Tab throttling coming to Beta

We know you need a lot of tabs to do your work, and with tab throttling - now rolling out on Beta channel - Chrome will give more resources to the tabs you’re using by taking them back from tabs that have been in the background for a long time. We see improvements not only in loading speed but also battery and memory savings. Watch this space for more on that work when it is broadly available!

Chrome's performance - speed and usage of resources like power, memory, or CPU - has always been top of mind. We have a dedicated engineering team that has been consistently (and quietly) making improvements so Chrome runs faster and smoother on all devices, operating systems, and internet conditions. No matter if you are a heavy tab user on your Windows laptop, or need a lightweight app experience on your Android phone, we are working hard to use your device resources most efficiently.

Posted by Max Christoff, Engineering Director, Chrome

*How fast your browser responds to user input (real world data anonymously aggregated from Chrome pre-stable channels)

** The time it takes the first text or image to be displayed upon loading a page (real world data anonymously aggregated from Chrome pre-stable channels)

Protecting Google Chrome users from insecure forms

Monday, August 17, 2020

Update (10/07/2020): Mixed form warnings were originally scheduled for Chrome 86, but will be delayed until Chrome 87.

Beginning in M86, Chrome will warn users when they try to complete forms on secure (HTTPS) pages that are submitted insecurely. These “mixed forms” (forms on HTTPS sites that do not submit on HTTPS) are a risk to users’ security and privacy. Information submitted on these forms can be visible to eavesdroppers, allowing malicious parties to read or change sensitive form data.

Specifically, Chrome will be making the following changes to communicate the risks associated with mixed form submission:

Autofill will be disabled on mixed forms.
Note: On mixed forms with login and password prompts, Chrome’s password manager will continue to work. Chrome’s password manager helps users input unique passwords, and it is safer to use unique passwords even on forms that are submitted insecurely, than to reuse passwords.
When a user begins filling out a mixed form, they will see warning text alerting them that the form is not secure.

If a user tries to submit a mixed form, they will see a full page warning alerting them of the potential risk and confirming if they’d like to submit anyway.

Before M86, mixed forms were only marked by removing the lock icon from the address bar. We saw that users found this experience unclear and it did not effectively communicate the risks associated with submitting data in insecure forms.

We encourage developers to fully migrate forms on their site to HTTPS to protect their users. Developers with questions are welcome to email us at security-dev@chromium.org.

Posted by Shweta Panditrao, Chrome Security Team

Highlighting great user experiences on the mobile web

Monday, August 17, 2020

Over the last decade, Chrome and the web development community have worked towards providing users with a fast, responsive and delightful browsing experience. Features like <link rel=preload> and native lazy-loading, to name but a few, are helping pages meet this mark. Historically, Chrome has also successfully encouraged the adoption of best-practices such as HTTPS by distinguishing secure from insecure browsing in Chrome's UI.

To help users identify great experiences as they browse, we are excited to announce that Chrome will begin to highlight high quality user experiences on the web, starting with the labelling of fast links via the link context menu on Chrome for Android. This change will be rolling out starting in Chrome 85 Beta.

Labelling is based on signals from the Core Web Vitals metrics that quantify key aspects of users’ experience, as experienced by real-world Chrome users. The Core Web Vitals metrics measure dimensions of web usability such as loading time, responsiveness, and the stability of content as it loads, and define thresholds for these metrics to set a bar for providing a good user experience.

The changes that site owners make to improve on these aspects work towards making the web more delightful for users across all web browsers. Investing in these critical user-centric metrics helps to drive usability improvements for users and helps businesses see increased engagement.

Links to pages that have historically met or exceeded all metrics thresholds for the Core Web Vitals will be displayed with a new “Fast page” label. This is shown when a user long-presses a link prior to navigating to a page, and it indicates that most users navigating to it have a particularly good experience.

"Fast page" labelling may badge a link as fast if the URL (or URLs like it) have been historically fast for other users. When labelling, historical data from a site’s URLs with similar structure are aggregated together. Historical data is evaluated on a host-by-host basis when the URL data is insufficient to assess speed or is unavailable, for example, when the URL is new or less popular.

Our plan is to maintain alignment with Core Web Vitals as they evolve, so that we are always labeling pages that have optimized against the metrics that are most representative of a user's overall experience. As previously noted, developers should expect the definitions and thresholds of the Core Web Vitals to be stable, and updates to have prior notice and a predictable, annual cadence.

We anticipate that optimizing for the Core Web Vitals may require some investments in improving page quality. To help out, we updated our developer tools to surface information and recommendations: Lighthouse, DevTools, PageSpeed Insights, and Search Console team added a report dedicated to Core Web Vitals too.

Labelling is currently being rolled out to Chrome 85 beta, but if you would like to try labelling today, go to chrome://flags and enable “Context menu performance info and remote hint fetching”. Please note, this flag will only be available on Chrome for Android. Once fully rolled out, users will see labelling if they have Lite mode or “Make Searches and Browsing Better” turned on. Next, navigate to any qualifying page, such as the Wikipedia page for the Internet, and long-press on any link.

We believe the web serves a critical role in our lives, and hope that fast labelling proves helpful to users who are on slow or spotty network connections. Over time, we may also experiment with labelling in other parts of Chrome’s UI. Ultimately, our goal is to provide users of the web with a healthy level of transparency into the experience they may have with a page.

Chrome is committed to working with the ecosystem to ensure a thriving web, and the steps we take, such as the ones outlined above, are designed with these goals in mind.

By Addy Osmani, Ben Greenstein and Josh Simmons, fast page fans.

Helping people spot the spoofs: a URL experiment

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

On today’s web, URLs remain the primary way users determine the identity and authenticity of a site, yet we know URLs suffer from usability challenges. For example: there are myriad ways that attackers can manipulate URLs to confuse users about a website’s identity, which leads to rampant phishing, social engineering, and scams. In one study, more than 60% of users were fooled when a misleading brand name appeared in a URL’s path.

Different browsers approach this challenge in a number of ways, including showing only the domain by default, or visually highlighting the registrable domain (the “most significant” part of the domain name). In Chrome 86, we’re likewise going to experiment with how URLs are shown in the address bar on desktop platforms (animation below). Our goal is to understand -- through real-world usage -- whether showing URLs this way helps users realize they’re visiting a malicious website, and protects them from phishing and social engineering attacks.

An experiment in Chrome 86 shows the domain name by default and full URL on hover

Prefer to see the full URL?

If you find yourself in the experimental group, and you’d like to view the full URL for a given site, you’ll have two options. First you can hover over the URL, and it will expand fully. Second, you can right-click on the URL, and choose “Always show full URLs” in the context menu (screenshot below); enabling this setting will show the full URL for all future sites you visit. (Notably: Enterprise-enrolled devices won’t be included in this Chrome 86 experiment.)

A setting in the context menu allows you to always show full URLs in the address bar

We welcome your feedback!

If you’re not randomly assigned to this Chrome 86 experiment, and you’d like to try it out, please install Chrome Canary or Dev channel, open chrome://flags in Chrome 86, enable the following flags, and re-launch Chrome:

#omnibox-ui-reveal-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-hover
#omnibox-ui-sometimes-elide-to-registrable-domain
Optionally, #omnibox-ui-hide-steady-state-url-path-query-and-ref-on-interaction to show the full URL on page load until you interact with the page.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts! You can file bugs or feature requests on our bug tracker.

Posted by Emily Stark, Eric Mill, Shweta Panditrao, Chrome Security Team

ChromeOS.dev — A blueprint to build world-class apps and games for Chrome OS

Wednesday, August 12, 2020

This article originally appeared on ChromeOS.dev
Star Trek™ Fleet CommandReigns: Game of ThronesCalmDisney+

To deliver app experiences that truly improve people’s lives, developers must be equipped with the right tools, resources, and best practices. That’s why we’re excited to introduce ChromeOS.dev — a dedicated resource for technical developers, designers, product managers, and business leaders.

ChromeOS.dev, available in English and Spanish (with other languages coming soon), features the latest news, product announcements, technical documentation, and code samples from popular apps. Whether you’re a web, Android, or Linux developer who’s just getting started or a certified expert, you’ll find all the information you need on ChromeOS.dev.

Hear from our experts at Google and Chrome OS, as well as a variety of developers, as they share practical tips, benefits, and the challenges of creating app experiences for today’s users. Plus, you can review the updated Chrome OS Layout and UX App Quality guidelines with helpful information on UI components, navigation, fonts, layouts, and everything that goes into creating world-class apps and games for Chrome OS.

Even better, as a fully open-source online destination, ChromeOS.dev is designed considering all the principles and methods for creating highly capable and reliable Progressive Web Apps (PWAs), ensuring developers always have quick, easy access to the information they need — even when they’re offline.

Check out a few of the newest updates and improvements below, and be sure to install the ChromeOS.dev PWA on your device to stay on top of the latest information.

New features for Chrome OS developers

Whether it’s developing Android, Linux, or web apps, every update on ChromeOS.dev is about making sure all developers can build better app experiences in a streamlined, easy-to-navigate environment.

Customizable Linux Terminal

The Linux (Beta) on Chrome OS Terminal now comes equipped with personalized features right out of the box, including:

Integrated tabs and shortcuts: Multitask with ease by using windows and tabs to manage different tasks and switch between multiple projects. You can also use familiar shortcuts such as Ctrl + T, Ctrl + W, and Ctrl + Tab to manage your tabs, or use the settings page to control if these keys should be used in your Terminal for apps like vim or emacs.
Themes: Customize your Terminal by selecting a theme to switch up the background, frame, font, and cursor color.

Redesigned Terminal settings: The settings tab has been reorganized to make it easier to customize all your Terminal options.

Developers can now start using these and other customizable features in the Terminal app.

Android Emulator supportSupported Chromebooksmap locations foldable smartphonesDeploy apps directly to Chrome OS deploy and test apps directly on their ChromebooksImproved Project Wizard in Android StudioPrimary/Detail Activity Template

Updated support from Android lint checks

We’ve improved the default checks in Android’s lint tool to help developers identify and correct common coding issues to improve their apps on larger screens, such as non-resizable and portrait-locked activities. This feature is currently available for testing in Canary channel.

Unlock your app’s full potential with Chrome OS

Sources: 1 The NPD Group, Inc., U.S. Retail Tracking Service, Notebook Computers, based on unit sales, April–June 2020 and March–June 2020.

Changes to the Chrome App Support Timeline

Monday, August 10, 2020

NOTE: The timeline has been updated, please see our October 2021 post for more details.

In January 2020, we announced that we are expanding our phased approach for ending the support of Chrome Apps. That announcement was made due to significant progress of the modern Web and its ability to deliver first class user experiences for users. We continue to invest in rich new capabilities on the Web platform and are committed to pushing the Web forward.

Based on feedback from our customers and partners, we are making the following adjustments to the Chrome app support timeline, with modifications highlighted in bold:

Scheduled Date	Action
March 2020	Chrome Web Store stopped accepting new public Chrome apps. Developers will be able to update existing Chrome apps through June 2022. Enterprise administrators may continue to submit new private and unlisted Chrome apps to the Chrome Web Store.
June 2021	General support for Chrome Apps on Windows, Mac, and Linux will end June 2021. Organizations will be able to use a policy setting to extend support on Windows, Mac, and Linux through June 2022. General support for Chrome Apps on Chrome OS will remain enabled, without requiring any policy setting, through June 2022.
June 2022	Chrome Web Store will stop accepting new and updated private and unlisted Chrome apps. End support for Chrome Apps, NaCl, PNaCl, and PPAPI for all platforms.

This change does not impact support for Chrome Extensions. Google will continue to support and invest in Chrome Extensions on all existing platforms. Fostering a robust ecosystem of extensions is critical to Chrome's mission and we are committed to providing a useful extension platform for customizing the browsing experience for all users.

For additional support with Chrome app migration, please visit our Chrome Apps migration site. This page will be kept up to date as we progress together through this process.

We thank our community of developers who have provided feedback to help us shape this modified and simplified approach. We are inspired by a future beyond Chrome apps, where the ecosystem continues forward progress leveraging open Web standards across all modern browsers.

Posted by Anthony Laforge, Technical Director, Chrome Platform Team

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Chromium Blog

Chrome just got faster with Profile Guided Optimization

Protecting Google Chrome users from insecure forms

Highlighting great user experiences on the mobile web

Helping people spot the spoofs: a URL experiment

ChromeOS.dev — A blueprint to build world-class apps and games for Chrome OS

Changes to the Chrome App Support Timeline

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