Network engineers and hard-core Web architects know that HTTP (Hyper Text Transfer Protocol), the data transfer method used by the Web, isn’t the most efficient data transfer protocol around. So, back in November 2009, Google started working on a faster replacement: SPDY, pronounced “speedy.” And, now, if you’re using the Chrome Web browser, and visiting Google Web sites, you can see SPDY in action according to Conceivably Tech.

I’m inclined to believe these claims because when I opened some moderately complex spreadsheets in Google Docs using both Chrome 10 and Firefox 4, and taking into account their differences in JavaScript rendering speed, Chrome 10 was still rendering pages about 20% faster than Firefox from what I would have expected.

I saw similar results on Gmail, iGoogle, and Google Advanced Scholar Search. I don’t know about you, but a 20% boost in Web site performance is impressive to me.

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