Google announces new photo format: WebP

By Laura Khalil Published September 30, 2010

Image used with permission by copyright holder

WebP (pronounced weppy) has been under development by Google and reduces file sizes by 40 percent compared to JPEGs. That means faster downloads from websites and less strain on networks.

Recommended Videos

Richard Rabbat, product manager at Google explains why they made the decision to develop WebP, “Most of the common image formats on the web today were established over a decade ago and are based on technology from around that time. Some engineers at Google decided to figure out if there was a way to further compress lossy images like JPEG to make them load faster, while still preserving quality and resolution. As part of this effort, we are releasing a developer preview of a new image format, WebP, that promises to significantly reduce the byte size of photos on the web, allowing web sites to load faster than before.”

Google is working hard to make this a new standard and has been in discussions with browser developers to gather support. Not surprisingly, we can expect to see WebP support in Chrome in the next few weeks.

Former Digital Trends Contributor

Laura is a tech reporter for Digital Trends, the editor of Dorkbyte and a science blogger for PBS. She's been named one of…

Topics

Google

Computing

Google’s new Gemma 3 AI models are fast, frugal, and ready for phones

Google Gemma 3 open-source AI model on a tablet.

Google’s AI efforts are synonymous with Gemini, which has now become an integral element of its most popular products across the Worksuite software and hardware, as well. However, the company has also released multiple open-source AI models under the Gemma label for over a year now.

Today, Google revealed its third generation open-source AI models with some impressive claims in tow. The Gemma 3 models come in four variants — 1 billion, 4 billion, 12 billion, and 27 billion parameters — and are designed to run on devices ranging from smartphones to beefy workstations.
Ready for mobile devices

Computing

Google employees are testing new AI Mode search feature

AI Overviews being shown in Google Search.

Google is working on integrating more AI features into its search engine. The company is now having its U.S. employees test a new feature called “AI Mode.”

The publication 9to5 Google uncovered an internal email detailing that employees had been invited to dogfood (test), the AI Mode, which is intended to be a form of intelligent search embedded within Google Search. The feature adds “easy-to-digest breakdowns with links to explore content across the web.”

Computing

Google’s new Agent will power Mercedes’ next in-car AI assistant

The Mercedes MBUX

Google Cloud released its new Automotive AI Agent on Monday and has named the Mercedes-Benz CLA as the first car model to offer it later this year. The Agent will enable Mercedes' MBUX Virtual Assistant to perform a wider array of conversational functions with the vehicle's passengers.

We got our first look at Mercedes' next generation assistant a year ago, at CES 2024, though the company did not reveal which large language model underpinned its capabilities at the time. This new assistant differs from the existing MBUX that can activate around two dozen in-car commands and provide information sourced from ChatGPT and Bing. While the current generation assistant can be activated by stating "Hey, Mercedes," it functions more like Siri or Google Assistant than ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode, offering static responses rather than conversational replies.