W3C Launches Web Performance Working Group -- Redmondmag.com

W3C Launches Web Performance Working Group

By Kurt Mackie
08/19/2010

The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) today announced a new Web Performance Working Group that aims to more accurately measure Web app performance times.

The group will be co-chaired by representatives from Google and Microsoft. The two companies have been working independently on the problem of measuring Web app performance. Both have found the typical JavaScript method of checking performance to be woefully inadequate. Now they are pooling their efforts under the W3C based on the W3C's Web Timing draft spec.

Google implemented the Web Timing spec into the WebKit rendering engine that powers its Chrome browser. The company announced in late July that performance metrics are now accessible by developers for the Google Chrome 6 browser.

Microsoft implemented the Web Timing spec in its third "platform preview" of Internet Explorer 9, which can be explored in its window.msPerformance demo test. The company described the integration of the Web Timing spec, as well as the problems associated with measuring Web app performance, in a late June blog post.

The Web Performance Working Group initially will focus on creating a common API for measuring Web page loading and Web app performance. Currently, Google and Microsoft use vendor-specific prefixes for their implementations of the Web Timing spec.

"With two early implementations available, it shouldn't take long to finalize an interoperable API and remove the vendor prefixes," stated Jason Weber, lead program manager for IE performance and one of the co-chairs of the new working group, in a Thursday blog post. The other working group co-chair is Google's Arvind Jain.

The Web Performance Working Group is part of the W3C's Rich Web Client Activity. The group coordinates with external organizations such as the ECMA Technical Committee 39 (responsible for ECMAScript standardization) and the Internet Engineering Task Force (responsible for defining Web protocols).

About the Author

Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.

Featured

Choosing the Right SSID for Your Network

Attracting attention, whether through a default or funny Wi-Fi name, could lead to a security issue.
Microsoft Outlines Latest Security Efforts at Ignite

In the wake of last year's CrowdStrike incident, Microsoft has worked to publicly rehabilitate its security image through new initiatives and public commitments to improve. That push continued this week at Ignite, where Microsoft announced a handful of new security tools and updates.
Nadella on Copilot: 'Major Platform Shifts Are in the Air'

As should be no surprise, Copilot took center stage during Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella's keynote speech to open Microsoft Ignite 2024.
Azure AI Foundry Revealed at Microsoft Ignite

Microsoft is consolidating its Azure generative AI tools into a unified platform named Azure AI Foundry.
Microsoft Bolsters Fabric at Ignite

While Fabric has improved in the year since its release, there are still some glaring issues with the platform.