Intent to Extend Experiment: Enabling Web Applications to understand bimodal performance timings

203 views
Skip to first unread message

Mike Jackson

unread,
Jul 24, 2025, 3:48:11 PMJul 24
to blink-dev
Contact emails
https://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/PerformanceNavigationTiming%20for%20User%20Agent%20Launch/explainer.md

Design docs
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1D6DqptsCEd3wPRsZ0q1iwVBAXXmhxZuLV-KKFI0ptCg/edit#heading=h.7nki9mck5t64

Summary

Web applications may suffer from bimodal distribution in page load performance, due to factors outside of the web application’s control. For example: * When a user agent first launches (a "cold start" scenario), it must perform many expensive initialization tasks that compete for resources on the system. * Browser extensions can affect the performance of a website. For instance, some extensions run additional code on every page you visit, which can increase CPU usage and result in slower response times. * When a machine is busy performing intensive tasks, it can lead to slower loading of web pages. In these scenarios, content the web app attempts to load will be in competition with other work happening on the system. This makes it difficult to detect if performance issues exist within web applications themselves, or because of external factors. Teams we have worked with have been surprised at the difference between real-world dashboard metrics and what they observe in page profiling tools. Without more information, it is challenging for developers to understand if (and when) their applications may be misbehaving or are simply being loaded in a contended period. A new ‘confidence’ field on the PerformanceNavigationTiming object will enable developers to discern if the navigation timings are representative for their web application.



Blink component
Issues addressed

Origin Trial Name
PerformanceNavigationTiming confidence

Chromium Trial Name
PerformanceNavigationTimingConfidence

Origin Trial documentation linkhttps://github.com/MicrosoftEdge/MSEdgeExplainers/blob/main/PerformanceNavigationTiming%20for%20User%20Agent%20Launch/explainer.md

WebFeature UseCounter name
kPerformanceNavigationTimingConfidence

Risks


Interoperability and Compatibility

None.



Gecko: No signal (https://github.com/mozilla/standards-positions/issues/1191)

WebKit: No signal (https://github.com/WebKit/standards-positions/issues/469)

Web developers: No signals

Other signals:

WebView application risks

Does this intent deprecate or change behavior of existing APIs, such that it has potentially high risk for Android WebView-based applications?



Goals for experimentation



Reason this experiment is being extended

Our partner adopted the feature, but a site bug caused data to be collected too early during the page lifecycle. They've resolved the issue and requested three additional releases to gather data and ensure integration into their performance dashboard.



Ongoing technical constraints



Debuggability



Will this feature be supported on all six Blink platforms (Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS, Android, and Android WebView)?
Yes

Is this feature fully tested by web-platform-tests?
Yes

third_party/blink/web_tests/http/tests/misc/performance-navigation-timing-entry-confidence.tentative.html



Flag name on about://flags

Finch feature name
PerformanceNavigationTimingConfidence

Requires code in //chrome?
True

Tracking bug
https://bugs.chromium.org/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=1413848

Estimated milestones
Origin trial desktop first

136

Origin trial desktop last

139

Origin trial extension 1 end milestone

142

DevTrial on desktop

135

Origin trial Android first

136

Origin trial Android last

139

DevTrial on Android

135


Link to entry on the Chrome Platform Status

Chris Harrelson

unread,
Jul 30, 2025, 11:14:06 AMJul 30
to Mike Jackson, blink-dev
LGTM

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "blink-dev" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to blink-dev+...@chromium.org.
To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/a/chromium.org/d/msgid/blink-dev/6091e78f-7c77-4ed3-9559-eb660a14dfb7n%40chromium.org.
Reply all
Reply to author
Forward
0 new messages