LONDON: Google has offered to reduce data usage with Chrome for iOS and Android earlier, and now offering with the same proxy compression technology to Chrome on the desktop with Data Saver.
It routes Web traffic through Google’s servers, where pages are compressed before being sent to users. As a result, users will use less data and the lighter pages will load faster.
Users may not have the same need for data reduction on their laptop or desktop as when attempting to access a page in Chrome on phone with a cellular connection, but with a particularly slow Wi-Fi connection, Data Saver could prove useful by helping to load pages faster.
When users install Data Saver, it works without needing to restart Chrome and places a button to the right of Chrome’s URL bar. Users can use this button to turn Data Saver on and off and also to see their data savings. Google has placed a beta tag on Data Saver, and users will need Chrome 41 or higher to use the extension.
As with mobile, Data Saver does not work on secure (https) or private (Incognito) pages. Google notes that some sites may not be able to determine users’ location, some images might look fuzzy, and internal intranet sites may not load.
It should be noted that a third-party Chrome extension has offered similar functionality as Google’s Data Saver extension, but now users can get it straight from Chrome’s maker.
