For users on slow mobile networks, it is a hard time waiting for a page to load. Such pages also consume much data thereby increasing the users’ costs. Google is now transcoding webpages on mobile so that heavy pages are loaded faster and without losing any information – including advertisements on the pages.
In its support page, Google has announced that the current test field is Indonesia but the field will expand soon as they are working hard. The page says that Google will detect if the mobile network is slow when the user is performing a search. If it is normal or fast, it won’t do anything except showing results and opening them normally as it does on PCs. But if Google detects that the network is a slow one, it will save users’ data consumption and wait-time by transcoding the page on the fly. By transcoding, I mean that Google will load only the important elements – including advertisements from certain ad networks – so that the user does not have to wait for the page to load.
It also specified that the whole website will not be transcoded. It will transcode only the page that comes up in the search results and is clicked. If the user clicks on a link from the transcoded page, the linked page will also be transcoded.
There are some instances where Google says it won’t be able to transcode the pages for optimization on slower networks. The first things is when the webmasters opt for not transcoding the pages. Among other reasons are necessity to add cookies to mobile devices, video sites and sites that are built in a way that transcoding is not possible. There are some links on the Google page that helps you check how transcoded pages look. You can also compare the loading times of the pages using the above link.
Google claims traffic improves by 50% on transcoded webpages on mobile and publishers have nothing to lose as advertisements too will be displayed so they can continue earning from the ads. Check out the following video to get an idea of what Google intends to do.
