On its iGoogle Developer Blog today Google issued a warning to developers: Optimize your gadgets for speed, or we’re labeling them as “slow” in the directory.
Starting in late September, Google says that any widget that doesn’t meet a speed requirement, will get a nice “slow” badge attached to its directory listing. The only detail it gives about the requirement is that it will get the badge if it’s “slow enough to cause speed-related user dissatisfaction.”
That sounds pretty arbitrary, and that it could lead to a lot of developers complaining that their apps aren’t really slow, but are labeled as such. But we all know how much Google loves speed, so this move isn’t all that surprising.
To make sure your gadget doesn’t get the Scarlett Letter, check out these optimization tips from Google.
I guess I’ll need to hope whatever new crawler they invent to test gadget speed doesn’t stop by at 2AM when nightly database pruning slows response time.
When can we get a faster instantly loading Gmail using Google Gears?
Why do I have to wait for Gmail to “load”, even if it takes 1 second, I’d rather want the Javascript loaded locally on Google Gears and have new emails load a few milliseconds later however fast I can connect.
Chrome OS should load Gmails instantly via push mechanisms when they hit the email server.
This actually sounds like a decent idea for facebook apps… I think most people figure out which ones are a pain to use pretty fast on their own though.
A nice move by Google. This scarlet issue will be impressionable to all speed loving persons. i Google interesting, personalized home page allows users to add tabs, themes and drag-n-drop widgets to their home page which also contains third-party widgets.
This sounds pretty arbitrary, as it could improve the speed of a lot of developers and the scarlet letter also keeps people in temper to complete their work.
Will they self assign the “Letter” to Google Voice… by far one of the slowest “web” applications I have used in a long time. You would think that one of the new “premier” sites in Googleland would have a little bit of muscle behind it.
It’s “scarlet” letter not “Scarlett”. You’re thinking of Scarlett Johansson.
And the “A” meant its wearer was fast, actually.
I bet Google already does this with websites. It must be part of their alogirhtm
http://traderbo...spx?symbol=goog
May be … You are right abt it ..
Cheers,
Daina
I tend to agree with what Google is doing here. I’ve removed gadgets from my iGoogle home page and searched for faster, similar gadgets quite a few times before. This “slow” badge could be handy.
It’s “Scarlet!” This is a major, well-read blog. Please try to spell the words in your headlines correctly. And please, please correct this error. I hate looking at stuff like that, for some reason.
Errors like this are all too common at TechCrunch, unfortunately.