Google Releases Chrome 96 With Back-Forward Cache Enabled For The Desktop

[phoronix]

Phoronix: Google Releases Chrome 96 With Back-Forward Cache Enabled For The Desktop

Google has released Chrome 96 a day early as the latest routine update to their cross-platform web browser...

https://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Chrome-96-Released

[LinAGKar]

>- An automatic HTTP to HTTPS redirect when hitting HTTPS DNS records. Basically if the DNS records are via HTTPS, assume the website is also accessible via HTTPS and use that by default.

What does this mean? It will use HTTPS by default if you use DoH? That makes no sense.

>- A back-forward cache has been enabled for the desktop. This allows for quicker navigation to previously-visited webpages.

Isn't this something that has existed since basically forever?

[Calinou]

Isn't this something that has existed since basically forever?

It's been available in Chrome on Android for a while now, but not on desktop. Try using the back/forward buttons on desktop and notice that resources will still be loaded from the server (as evidenced by the "loading" favicon being temporarily present).

[skeevy420]

>- A back-forward cache has been enabled for the desktop. This allows for quicker navigation to previously-visited webpages.

Isn't this something that has existed since basically forever?

Lol, my literal first thought was "It didn't do that already? Huh. Well I'll be damned."

So I went down the rabbit hole and they're copying a Firefox feature from 2005.

[zamadatix]

An automatic HTTP to HTTPS redirect when hitting HTTPS DNS records. Basically if the DNS records are via HTTPS, assume the website is also accessible via HTTPS and use that by default.

This feature is actually in support of a new DNS record type which tells the browser which protocol and protocol version to use. It doesn't matter which manner the new record is resolved, only that the record exists on the server.

[Frenzie]

So I went down the rabbit hole and they're copying a Firefox feature from 2005.

Opera did that since at least version 7 (2003).

[Vistaus]

Lol, my literal first thought was "It didn't do that already? Huh. Well I'll be damned."

So I went down the rabbit hole and they're copying a Firefox feature from 2005.

Firefox feature? Opera had that feature a couple of years before Firefox.

[waxhead]

Firefox feature? Opera had that feature a couple of years before Firefox.

And SeaMonkey (old Mozilla Suite / Netscape Navigator) have had this for more or less the beginning of Internet

[Vistaus]

And SeaMonkey (old Mozilla Suite / Netscape Navigator) have had this for more or less the beginning of Internet

Netscape was founded in 1994 as Mosaic, but it didn't have the back-forward cache back then. Opera introduced that feature in 1995 or 1996, shortly after it was first released. Netscape introduced that feature in 1997 because unlike Opera (which was a commercial browser back then), they were facing competition from the also free-released IE and needed to have something to stand out (which ultimately failed).

Opera introduced a lot of features back then that we now take for granted, including said back-forward cache.

[LinAGKar]

Lol, my literal first thought was "It didn't do that already? Huh. Well I'll be damned."

So I went down the rabbit hole and they're copying a Firefox feature from 2005.

So Firefox has had this for literally as long as I've been using the web. I thought this was just a standard thing in all browsers, I'm surprised Chrome didn't have it.

Firefox feature? Opera had that feature a couple of years before Firefox.

I guess it lost it when they moved to Chromium.

This feature is actually in support of a new DNS record type which tells the browser which protocol and protocol version to use. It doesn't matter which manner the new record is resolved, only that the record exists on the server.

I see. The article said it applied when the records were served over HTTPS, but it looks like he's removed that now.