Google continuously improves its browser not only for regular users, but also for developers, for whom the integrated features make it easier to work when developing web applications. Version 60 is no exception, adding many interesting new features to the Developer Tools.
New Audits panel
Probably the most significant addition is the new Audits panel, powered by Lighthouse. It’s an open-source automated tool for improving the quality of web pages. It is now fully integrated into the browser, with no need to install any add-ons.
An audit can be run on any website, whether public or requiring authentication. Lighthouse then runs a set of tests that check how the page performs on different devices, at different network speeds, etc.
The result is a report that includes the scores achieved in the following areas:
- Progressive Web App – measures reliability, speed and availability on various devices.
- Performance – loading and interaction speeds.
- Accessibility – correct use of attributes, colour contrasts.
- Best Practices – this covers all other areas that don’t affect the final score but are still worth addressing.
The report also highlights points that can be improved so that next time you run the audit, you get a better result and a higher-quality website.
Other new features
- Third-party badges – used to identify and track third-party components (ads, libraries, etc.) that communicate with the website and may cause issues. This feature needs to be enabled via the command menu (ctrl+shift+p, cmd+shift+p) by typing Show Third Party Badges.
- Continue To Here – functionality that speeds up debugging JavaScript code in the browser.
Other new features include displaying more information about JavaScript objects in debugger mode, an improved context menu in the Console, and simpler network throttling settings.