Google Plans To Shame Slow Loading Websites With Badge

Nothing tests patience more than a slow loading website and Google, it seems, can no longer take it. The technology company is experimenting with a badge of shame for websites that load slowly in Chrome, and hence, may identify sites that typically load fast or slow for users with clear badging.

Google unveiled the plan at the Chrome Developer Summit in San Francisco and said speeding up the web is the company’s one of the key focuses this year. This includes Goggle offering developers tools to help their sites and web apps load quicker, and labelling sluggish sites might prompt developers to take advantage of such tools. The company, however, has carefully worded its announcement with lots of “may” hedges, so it’s likely Google is looking for immediate feedback from web developers before it progresses. In a blog post, the Chrome team said, “This may take a number of forms and we plan to experiment with different options, to determine which provides the most value to our users”.

While it’s not clear exactly when this new badging system will appear in Chrome, but several possibilities and course of action is looked into. Among the several options Google is experimenting with are changing the colour of the progress bar, i.e. green for quick-loading sites and presumably, red if it’s slow or displaying a loading message for sites that crawl onto your screen.

Eventually, Google might also let you know if a page might take a while to display properly because of your device or connection. On the other hand, it might reward fast-loading sites with positive so-called “speed badging”. It’s not yet known when Google will roll out speed badging or even if it’ll actually do so. Still, it’s clear Google hopes to make the web faster for everyone, even if it might have to embarrass some developers to make it happen.