Google does U-turn on magazine-style web layouts in favor of faster browsing

Google has changed its mind about supporting an Adobe tool to allow magazine-style layout on web pages after deciding that the technology would have too great an impact on browsing speeds, reports CNET.

The technology, known as CSS Regions, allows text to flow around irregularly-shaped objects, as in the example above. Google had initially supported the project, part of a move by Adobe to bring Flash-style capabilities into native web standards, intending to incorporate the code into its Blink browser engine.

Google Chrome programmer Eric Seidel says that Adobe’s current approach has too great a performance hit.

I believe Blink’s focus this year must be on mobile and specifically mobile performance…I have come to understand that Regions both does not play well with existing performance optimizations [and] impedes ongoing simplification and optimization work to our core rendering code,” Seidel said about his reversal of opinion on CSS Regions. “Regions addresses some very real deficiencies of the Web platform. But I believe Blink (hopefully with Adobe’s help) will need to find other simpler/smaller ways to address these deficiencies.”

Another Google Chrome programmer echoed this view, stating that while magazine-style layouts were appealing, Google’s priority is maximising browser performance with web apps in mind.