Google hopes to speed up the web with SPDY and TCP proposals [The Verge]
There are a number of things that can cause your Internet connection to run a little slower than you'd like. One potential drag on your speed is the protocol that forms the basis of all transmissions on the Internet.
The current protocols used in handling web traffic are quite old (at least by technology standards) and in many ways haven't kept up with advances in other aspects of the web. Although these protocols don't result in much more than very tiny delays, Google is looking to advance two new protocols to make web surfing just a little faster.
The first protocol proposal from Google is called SPDY (pronounced speedy). SDPY works with Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and allows for multiple requests through a single connection. SDPY is already built into Google Chrome and will be in the next version of Mozilla Firefox (version 11), but Google is hoping that the HTTP Working Group charged with developing HTTP 2.0 will also include SDPY in its final product.
Google's second proposal is an enhancement to TCP or Transmission Control Protocol. The TCP proposal isn't as far along as SDPY and aims at a more fundamental protocol action. Google believes TCP can be sped up by reducing the number of "round trips" necessary for a data request. The proposal lists several tweaks to TCP to help reduce latency.
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