Google seeks to kill the JPEG image format

Images comprize 65% of the bytes transmitted over the web everyday. As a result of their file size, they considerably slow down the web experience. Google, by no means, wants to make the world dull and bland by removing images from the web. Instead, the search giant is promoting a new lossy image format called WebP. WebP can help reduce the file size of images by 40 percent compared to JPEG (JPG) format images. This would be big win for web designers and web developers, as their creations can run at faster speeds with less hangups. WebP image format is based on open source technology.

There is a downside to the WebP image format. They can take up to eight times longer to encode than traditional JPEGs.