Google is introducing a new compression algorithm named Brotli, which it says can reduce file sizes up to 26 percent over existing solutions.

The increased density is achieved by “a 2nd order context modeling, re-use of entropy codes, larger memory window of past data and joint distribution codes.”

Its current compression algorithm, Zopfli, isn’t being buried (yet, at least). Google notes Zopfli is already in use across various compression solutions, so shuttering it won’t happen straight away.

Brotli — Swiss-German for ‘small bread’ — is a big deal. It’s not an iterative deflate-compatible engine, but a whole new data format.

In a study, Google measured the compression speed and ratio of Brotli against current standards like Zopfli, LZMA and LZHAM. It found the new format used less CPU than existing remedies across all decompression corpora.

While it’s very early, Brotli is faster and more powerful in testing, meaning faster page loads and data transfer. It also uses less CPU and battery, and is open source just like its predecessor.

➤ Introducing Brotli: a new compression algorithm for the internet [Google]

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