Google offers alternative graphic format WebP

Does JPEG get exchanged soon?

Google wants to add support for their WebP graphic format into next Chrome releases.

But what does that mean exactly? Do we need to serve WebP soon to get advantages in Google search results? Do we need to serve WebP (for Google and Google Chrome) and JPEG (for everyone else)?

JPEG is standard since 1992! Check Wikipedia to get more infos about JPEG.

So I am asking myself... why is someone coming in 2010 with a NEW file format? Was noone able to do it before the big G?

Google said that WebP could cut image file sizes by 40 percent compared to today's dominant JPEG file format.

Read more here at CNET.

From the Google WebP Page:

Read more about Google's WebP.

Hm, maybe we need to add one more to the list soon... ask yourself.

 

No.

No. Why would you need to?

It does so there's your answer. Webp is based on WebM which was developed by On2 many years ago and recently bought by Google.

 

Why would I need to?

Because Google could say they want it. Google says and people do. Google is just too powerful.
They can do what they want, that's how it is.

If WebP relies on WebM or whatever... WebM is not a standard, but WebP will get standard... because of Google.

 

That's assuming Google would turn against the open web which it has never done before. In fact, WebM was proprietary and Google has released it as open source/royalty free. Without checking, I'd bet WebP is, too.

To insist on WebP as a preferred image format would mean rejecting, or minimizing, all other image formats; something they have never done in the past either. Though WebP looks like a superior format, what would they gain by rejecting the others in search? Google is a search and advertising company, they don't sell technology, so preferring one format over the other means reducing their search range and capabilities, thus reducing their abilities in that area. Doesn't make sense to do that.

 

Well, unless any other browser except Google chrome implement it, I thought this new image format will never be used or getting dominance over JPEG or PNG. just like better and more usable dvorak keyboard which never able to beat the-already-become-standard qwerty

 

Did you ever find out what this means? I really doubt it, I think they have a new type of algorithm that can recognize certain type of picture files and not others.