WebP lossless images are 26% smaller in size compared to PNGs. WebP lossy images are 25-34% smaller in size compared to JPEG images at equivalent SSIM index. WebP supports lossless transparency (also known as alpha channel) with just 22% additional bytes. Transparency is also supported with lossy compression and typically provides 3x smaller file sizes compared to PNG when lossy compression is acceptable for the red/green/blue color channels.
They even offer an image converter: https://developers.google.com/speed/webp/download
Right now it's only supported in Chrome and Opera (http://caniuse.com/webp) but I would have to think that FireFox would pick up support for it sometime with such impressive improvements.
http://blog.chromium.org/2014/03/webp-improves-while-rolling-out-across.html
I really hope this gets implemented in WebKit so all browsers based on this get it natively such as Safari.
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Sadly the Firefox developers would rather focus on useless projects than add new codecs to their web browser. I would really like to see webp universally compatible though, or see the browsers that don't support it fall to the wayside.
Id much rather have MNG or APNG to be honest. A replacement for animated GIFS is so badly needed.
Id seems ridiculous to me Google doesn't support either of them.
(Worth noting Opera, as always, supports both. 2% market share is so unfair)
+Thomas Wrobel animated WebP is already in the betas of Chrome, that's why they are not looking at other standards.
Ah, but animated PNGs are in the mainstream release's for Opera and Firefox and have been for years now. 😉
It just seems very counter-productive for Chrome to be holding out for so long on it.
Its wrong to hold out supporting something, imho, even if you know you have something thats better a few years away. After all, maybe others arnt implementing WebP right now because they feel they have got something better a few years away. Down that road lies a hellish distopia webscape!
+Thomas Wrobel Does Opera support APNGs since the Blink disaster?
Are MNG and APNG open standards? I could see that as being a reason for not implementing support. A replacement for animated GIFs is needed… particularly since we're seeing such a resurgence of them on the web.
+Paul Spoerry HTML5 video seems to be slowly becoming Reddit's alternative of choice when it comes to big gifs. http://gfycat.com/
APNG would be nice, but it's still not ideal. PNG isn't the best choice for photos.
+Luke Larris um… wow. The gfycat filesize makes GIF look crazy bloated. Personally, I'd like to see HTML5 everywhere. That'd be ideal, but even on their site they say they make 5 different videos of what you upload because they dont know what they'll server. So it sounds like the same problem… incomptibility (tho they are dealing with it and not be…so that's a plus).
+Paul Spoerry
APNG (just like WebP) = open specs. Advantages of APNG: First frame everywhere, even in IE. Thumbnails are created correctly, everywhere. Very simple specs, stable since Firefox 3, tons of software support: http://littlesvr.ca/apng