Google Developers Blog: May 2014

Introducing a New Video Series: Compressor Head

Tuesday, May 20, 2014

By Colt McAnlis, Google Developer Advocate Compressor Head, Episode 1 (Variable Length Codes)Compressor Head, Episode 2 (The LZ Compression Family)Compressor Head, Episode 3 (Markov Chain Compression) Google Developers YouTube channelhttp://g.co/compressorheadColt McAnlis is a games developer advocate who believes every bit counts and that performance matters. He is a Udacity course instructor on HTML5 games and a Book Author. When he's not working with developers, Colt’s been known to compress games, buildings and mountains with his bare hands.Posted by Louis Gray, Googler

Making your site more mobile-friendly with PageSpeed Insights

Monday, May 19, 2014

By Matthew Steele and Doantam Phan, PageSpeed Insights Teamthe Google Webmaster Blog To help developers and webmasters make their pages mobile-friendly, we recently updated PageSpeed Insights with additional recommendations on mobile usability.

Poor usability can diminish the benefits of a fast page load. We know the average mobile page takes more than 7 seconds to load, and by using the PageSpeed Insights tool and following its speed recommendations, you can make your page load much faster. But suppose your fast mobile site loads in just 2 seconds instead of 7 seconds. If mobile users still have to spend another 5 seconds once the page loads to pinch-zoom and scroll the screen before they can start reading the text and interacting with the page, then that site isn’t really fast to use after all. PageSpeed Insights’ new User Experience rules can help you find and fix these usability issues. These new recommendations currently cover the following areas:

Configure the viewport: Without a meta-viewport tag, modern mobile browsers will assume your page is not mobile-friendly, and will fall back to a desktop viewport and possibly apply font-boosting, interfering with your intended page layout. Configuring the viewport to width=device-width should be your first step in mobilizing your site.

Size content to the viewport: Users expect mobile sites to scroll vertically, not horizontally. Once you’ve configured your viewport, make sure your page content fits the width of that viewport, keeping in mind that not all mobile devices are the same width.

Use legible font sizes: If users have to zoom in just to be able read your article text on their smartphone screen, then your site isn’t mobile-friendly. PageSpeed Insights checks that your site’s text is large enough for most users to read comfortably.

Size tap targets appropriately: Nothing’s more frustrating than trying to tap a button or link on a phone or tablet touchscreen, and accidentally hitting the wrong one because your finger pad is much bigger than a desktop mouse cursor. Make sure that your mobile site’s touchscreen tap targets are large enough to press easily.

Avoid plugins: Most smartphones don’t support Flash or other browser plugins, so make sure your mobile site doesn't rely on plugins.

These rules are described in more detail in our help pages. When you’re ready, you can test your pages and the improvements you make using the PageSpeed Insights tool. We’ve also updated PageSpeed Insights to use a mobile friendly design, and we’ve translated our documents into additional languages.As always, if you have any questions or feedback, please post in our discussion group.
Posted by Louis Gray, Googler

Google I/O 2014: start planning your schedule

Friday, May 16, 2014

By Katie Miller, Google Developer Marketingdesign, develop and distributeGoogle I/O website

Breakout sessions: This year, we’ll once again bring you a deep selection of technical content, including sessions such as "What's New in Android"and "Wearable computing with Google” from Android, Chrome and Cloud, and cross-product, cross-platform implementations. There will be a full slate of design sessions that will bring to life Google’s design principles and teach best practices, and an update on how our monetization, measurement and payment products are better suited than ever to help developers grow the reach of their applications. Sessions from Ray Kurzweil, Ignite and Women Techmakers will take the stage and make us uncomfortably excited about what is possible. The first sessions are now listed, keep checking back for more.

Workshops and code labs: Roll up your sleeves, dig in to hands-on experiences and code. Learn how to build better products, apply quantitative data to user experiences, and prototype new Glassware through interactive workshops on UX, experience mapping and design principles. To maximize your learning and give you more interaction with Googlers and peers, visit our coding work space, with work stations preloaded with self-paced modules. Dive into Android, Chrome, Cloud and APIs with experts on hand for guidance.

Connect with Googlers in the sandbox: Check out your favorite Google products and meet the Googlers who built them. From there, join a ‘Box talk or app review, ranging from conceptual prototyping, to performance testing with the latest tools, to turning your app into a successful business.

Learn from peers at the partner sandbox: We love to see partners build cool things with Google, and have invited a few of them to showcase inspiring integrations of what’s possible. You will be able to see demos and talk in-depth with them about how they designed, created and grew their apps.

Beyond Moscone, with I/O Extended: Experience I/O around the world, in an event setting, with I/O Extended. The I/O Extended events include everything from live streaming sessions from I/O to local speaker sessions and hackathons. It is great to see so many events taking place around the world, and we can't wait to see I/O Extended events have another strong year.

Katherine Miller is part of the Developer Marketing team, working on session programming for Google I/O and developer research efforts. In her spare time she runs (both competitively and after her 2 children) and memorizes passages from beloved children's books.Posted by Louis Gray, Googler

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Introducing a New Video Series: Compressor Head

Making your site more mobile-friendly with PageSpeed Insights

Google I/O 2014: start planning your schedule

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