Media files such as images can contribute to a website loading fast or slow, where depending on the image format and compression, it can end up being a big file that takes longer than necessary to load, which can also work against a website’s response time. However Google wants to help with that with the launch of Squoosh.
Initially announced at the Chrome Dev Summit, Squoosh is a browser-based image optimization tool. What it does is that it allows users to drag and drop items into the tool and it will then compress the image file and optimize it so that it is small enough to load quickly, without necessarily degrading the overall quality.
We should point out that Squoosh isn’t the first web-based image optimizer. There are various similar tools available out there, but Google has made Squoosh open source which means that developers who are interested can create similar optimizers for their platforms or tweak it to their own liking.
Squoosh will also be capable of working offline, meaning that you just need to load the website and you’ll be good to go. It will play nicely on both desktop and mobile browsers, so if you’re working from a tablet, you should be able to access Squoosh to help better optimize your images. To get started just head on over to its website.