JPEG versus WebP

The WebP image, at 36,154 bytes.

The battle for photo web supremacy has just been re-awakened with a new challenger by Google... WebP.

The JPEG image, at 46,768 bytes.

For years, the clear-cut best choice for images in terms of the trade-off between quality and image size has been JPEG. Just enough edge sharpness and smoothness, with a relatively low memory footprint. However, with so many images and other content now on the internet, Google has been trying to develop a new type of image that is of comparable quality to a JPEG, but that takes up less memory. That image type is known as WebP, and it is designed specifically to display internet images at about 40% less memory usage than it's older brother JPEG.

Take a look for yourself at the images to the left, the above one is the WebP image, and the bottom is the JPEG. At first glance they seem to be identical, but upon closer inspection, the JPEG is slightly smoother and contains less jagged edges than the lower quality WebP counterpart. However, at 10,000 bytes less memory, that could really make a huge difference if there are numerous images being displayed at once. And, with about 60% of all Internet memory usage coming from pictures, less memory could mean a drastically different internet. Faster, smoother, better internet.

check out the article here: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20018146-264.html?tag=topImage1