Chrome may be the most popular browser out there, but it has come under fire recently for being too much of a resource hog and for, at times, slowing things down too much. Google"s engineers seem to be working on an experimental flag designed to optimise the browser"s resource usage.
"Never-Slow Mode", as the company"s engineers are calling it on the Chromium Gerrit, would cap the resource usage of pages and heavy scripts. Developer Alex Russell describes the function of the new mode as follows:
"Adds `--enable-features=NeverSlowMode` to enforce per-interaction budgets designed to keep the main thread clean (design doc currently internal).
Currently blocks large scripts, sets budgets for certain resource types (script, font, css, images), turns off document.write(), clobbers sync XHR, enables client-hints pervasively, and buffers resources without `Content-Length` set. Budgets are re-set on interaction (click/tap/scroll). Long script tasks (> 200ms) pause all page execution until next interaction."
By capping resource usage for heavy sites, Google could potentially make Chrome just that little bit faster. Given the experimental nature of the flag, however, the page does indicate that the feature may silently break some content in its current form. With a little more time and polish, however, it could turn into a real feature that power users who want their browser to run as efficiently as possible would really appreciate.
Source: Chromium Gerrit via ZDNet