By Alistair Barr
Google Inc. is making its search engine lean to be seen.
The Internet giant is modifying some key services--and some
non-Google websites--to reach more users in faster-growing,
developing countries with limited, expensive Internet connections,
Google executives said Thursday at the company's annual developers'
conference.
In one move, Google is adapting its Chrome browser to tap
antennas and other components in smartphones to detect the speed of
a user's Internet connection and the size of a Web page. When
Google estimates that a page will take more than 25 seconds to
load, it will remove some images or videos so the page will load
faster, said Jen Fitzpatrick, head of the company's maps and local
business.
The system will pull in slower-loading content later, or by
demand when users ask for it, she added. Google plans to launch a
pilot in India in coming months.
Ms. Fitzpatrick acknowledged that some publishers may object to
Google modifying their sites. She said Google will try to balance
showing sites as publishers intended and making sure as many people
as possible get to see those pages. Publishers will be able to opt
out, and users can choose to load the original page by following a
link, Google said.
Google's moves follow similar steps by other tech companies to
confront limited bandwidth, and limited budgets, in developing
countries. Facebook Inc.'s Internet.org program provides access in
certain countries to its social network and other Web services free
of telecom charges. Some websites in India have pulled content from
internet.org this year over fears it could allow telecom operators
to choose which Web applications users can access and at what
speeds.
Google itself in 2012 offered a service it called Free Zone,
which offered users in countries including India and Thailand
access to Google services including search and Gmail without data
charges. But the project fizzled about a year later.
Opera Software's browser became popular outside the U.S. in part
because of a setting called Opera Turbo that shrinks Web pages by
up to 80% so they use less data while downloading faster.
These companies recognize that most future growth in Internet
use will be in developing and emerging countries, most often
through mobile phones that may have limited bandwidth.
On phones in some developing countries with slower wireless
connections, Ms. Fitzpatrick said Google saw search results pages
that took more than eight seconds to load, compared with less than
a second on most connections in the U.S. The company has designed
new versions of these pages that are one-tenth as large and load
30% to 40% faster, Ms. Fitzpatrick said. Those pages are being
introduced in 13 countries, including India and Indonesia.
"We're not thinking about this as an experiment," Ms.
Fitzpatrick said. "We are thinking how to evolve our products for
the next generation of users."
To Google, faster service means more use of its services.
Earlier this year, Google tested stripped-down Web pages to people
in Indonesia who use Chrome and Android Web browsers on phones. The
lighter pages used 80% less data, loaded four times faster and got
50% more views, compared with the original pages delivered over the
same connections, the company said.
"Speed drives usage," Ms. Fitzpatrick said. "We've seen it many
times, in many situations."
For data-intensive videos, Google recently launched a feature
for its YouTube mobile app in India, Indonesia, the Philippines and
Vietnam that lets users download and store videos on their phones
for 48 hours to view later when they're offline.
Google is planning a similar feature for its Maps app, Ms.
Fitzpatrick said. Users will be able to save maps and use it later
to search for locations and businesses without a wireless
connection, she explained. The maps will work without a connection
by tapping the phones' Global Positioning System antennas, she
added.
Write to Alistair Barr at alistair.barr@wsj.com
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