Status: Untriaged
Owner: [email protected]
CC: [email protected]
Labels: Type-Bug Pri-2 OS-All Area-Misc Size-Medium

New issue 21589 by [email protected]: Implement <a ping>
http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=21589

We need a better mechanism for sites to be able to asynchronously track  
events on
navigation/page unload.  The reason is quite simple: without alternatives  
that don't block
the user, sites are using hacks which are _harming_ the user.  Some of  
these include:
-many sites start a network fetch and then simulate sleep() in JavaScript  
by doing tight
loops waiting for Date.getTime() to change
   -this is really bad since the delay is always the same, even if the  
request finishes
early
   -it's also bad on smartphones/laptops since it wastes battery
-sync XHRs
   -which have no timeout!
-redirects
   -slows down navigation

Sites are able to reliably do this in IE, since it doesn't cancel pending  
image requests on
navigation.  This trick is used by some sites.  What it means is that in  
all other
browsers, tracking slows down the user.

To make it very clear: we should do this for the _user_, not for sites.   
Sites now are able
to do it anyways in hacks that harm the user.  Implementing <a ping> won't  
have any effect
on privacy, since whatever tracking it'll be used for is already being  
done.  It will allow
it to be done in ways that don't delay the user, i.e. speeds up web  
browsing.

This should ideally be done in WebKit, so that other WebKit based browsers  
can take
advantage of this.  Let's also work with Firefox folks to renable this  
feature.

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