Chrome for Android will begin by adding “fast page” labels to the context menus of sites it considers high quality, Google announced Monday. The company says the labels will be based on signals from its Core Web Vitals metrics, which track user experience, including page-loading time, responsiveness and how stable content is when loaded.
Right now, there’s only one way to tell: if you click on a link long before you visit a page, you’ll get that “quick page” label if it meets Google’s standards.
:format(webp):no_upscale()/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/21765238/performance_hints_fast_labelling_2x.png)
But in the end, a ‘fast page’ can also be ranked higher in Google search. Google tells The edge that the same Core Web Vitals metrics are the criteria considered in the search rankings when launching the labels.
In the blog post announcing the labels, Google says that “optimizing for the Core Web Vitals may require some investment in improving page quality”, suggesting that developers might want to pay attention if they want to stay on top of Google search. The company says it has updated its developer tools with recommendations on how to meet these page quality goals. Google also has its own Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) format, which used to push the mobile web faster, but this could be another way to achieve the same goal.
Search revenue is a major contributor to Google’s parent company Alphabet; despite a dip in revenue year over year, in the second quarter of 2020, search brought in $ 21.3 billion of its $ 38.3 billion in revenue.
These “quick page” labels will be included in the beta version of Chrome 85, but if devs really want to see it in action sooner, Google has instructions on how to enable the feature.
