WebP is the new format Google is pushing to come to the rescue of broadband usage and get the place now JPEG holds. Tests seem to put WebP ahead of JPEG by a 39% file size margin, while holding at least as much quality as an equivalent JPEG. The format is lossy, as JPEG is, but seems to achieve better quality with less file size.

Google says they expect to get better compression percentages when starting from an uncompressed file rather than an already compressed one. I really want to see this at work, but again, people are VERY used to JPEGs by now, and in a broadband world, 100kB vs 61kB is not a big deal. Now, if you’re downloading 100’s of images, that could very well make a big impact, but that’s not the case with a very big portion of users.

Nevertheless, Google again shows they are concerned with making the web lighter, faster and easier, and I will be keeping an eye out for this new format.

More info at Google Code Blog on: WebP, a new image format for the web