Mobiles have become as big hog for internet as are personal computers. In fact, while there are several things that can be done on a computer in the absence of internet, mobiles seem to breathe internet. With 3G prices affordable now, many people are switching from EDGE and GPRS to 3G technology and it has become even easier for people to fill their data caps.
As the saying is- “Faster the net speed, quicker you touch the cap.”
However, browsers are always focusing on how to deal with the situation, especially since Android and iOS, as the rendering has become quite better and almost similar to personal computers. Opera has had data compression feature since the days of feature phones and is one of the primary reason for its success. UC browser, which is supposedly the most popular browser in India has data compression as well as multi-threading making browsing much faster.
Chrome, the most popular mobile browser in India has now implemented data compression for Android and iOS browser versions. The feature has been present in its beta versions but is finally making way in the stable version, which is obviously the most used version of chrome. Google claims that the data usage will reduce by up to 50%.
That is huge!
If data usage gets to half then suddenly we will all be seeing our caps reaching a lot late than now. Of course, this is valid for people for whom browsing is the main source of bandwidth hogging. If you were using the data for youtube app or games, this would have no impact on you.
Another important point that Google added was that data compression feature also enables Chrome’s Safe Browsing technology protecting users from malicious webpages. Much needed in mobiles, I must say. Enabling this feature is very simple-
The path is- “Settings” > “Bandwidth management” > “Reduce data usage”. After this simply turn it “On” and you are done. Data reduction can also be seen from this page itself.
Additionally, now users can make shortcuts of their favorite apps on the home screen for quicker access.
With Chrome becoming default Android browser now, it is very important for chrome to be ahead of the curve as it is going to be used by many people de facto- not unlike IE in Windows.
There are couple of other enhancements also that have been introduced for Chrome Mobile, both on Android as well as iOS. You can check out here.
