Google claims to have sped up the web

ADVERTISING BROKER Google claims to have speeded up the web thanks to improvements in the Javascript it uses to display adverts.

Google has updated the show_ads.js Javascript that is used by millions of websites to display Google's Adsense adverts. The new turn of speed comes from embedding the heavy lifting of the script in an iframe, resulting in the browser not stalling while the Javascript is working out what adverts to display.

Google claims that in its real-world tests, the latency overhead of displaying its adverts "is basically gone" with asynchronous loading. It added, "Page load times with the new asynchronous Adsense implementation are statistically indistinguishable from load times for the same pages with no ads at all."

The updated script will currently run on Internet Explorer 8, Firefox and Chrome. Google says support for more browsers will be coming in the future. It added that for developers this is a drop-in replacement with no modification required to enjoy the speed-up.

Improvements to advert delivery technologies might help websites combat user apathy, which turns into the installation of ad-blocking software. For Google, efficient display of adverts is vital as it makes most of its cash through flogging advertising.

Google's claim of speeding up the web by altering a bit of Javascript might seem like hyperbole, but website developers have in the past had to work out ways to decrease the loading time taken by Adsense scripts. By ensuring that its script doesn't block the browser, the overall time to load webpages should be slightly lower.

If Google's effort to speed up ad delivery works, this might help it display more adverts, win more business, and make even more money. µ