Dan from Redfin has a great post about prioritising web speed:

JavaScript Is the Web’s CO2

As a web developer, I find that most problems can be solved with just a little more JavaScript. Without someone or something to force the industry to cut back, web developers will continue to make web sites that only load “fast enough” via wifi on a fast laptop.

The browser vendors can’t save us. Every time they make the web faster, web developers “take advantage” of the change by using more JavaScript.

Our industry needs Google to take a principled stand, to significantly prioritize fast-loading sites over slow-loading sites

Read full post.

It’s not just us (Google) that can do this. I look at our team (Web and Chrome DevRel) being able to provide the tools and the guidance to help you start fast and then stay fast, but after that the industry has to recognise that performance is a feature and not an after thought.

I wrote in challenges for web developers that there are still many reasons that developers don’t prioritize performance (tools, guidance and clear business incentives), I don’t think Google asserting as written in Dan’s article post is the answer for the long term health of the web, it needs to come from businesses seeing performance convert better.