Chrome prefetch

By Nerd stuff

So, the airheads at Google have invented something new.
Or actually, it’s not really new, because this URL dates back to May 2022. But I was just cleaning up my web server logs, and I ran into something I didn’t know.

What it comes down to is that, instead of optimizing Google Chrome, Google has decided to lay the responsibility for the (lack of) speed of their browser with website developers worldwide. If you want to help them pretend that Chrome is a browser that can keep up with professionally developed browsers, you are expected to host a specially crafted file, which will allow Chrome to prefetch all linked URLs in your website, even if the user does not click on those links.
Obviously, everybody with a brain understands that this will increase internet traffic exponentially, without any real benefits, which in turn makes using the internet more expensive for all of us (more traffic = higher cost for our providers = higher cost for us). But Google doesn’t care: anything is allowed to keep the billions of dollars flowing in.

So, here is something you can do if you, like me, are done with Google dictating the internet only so that their shareholders can make more money.

The file that Chrome expects to find is called /.well-known/traffic-advice. By blocking access to this URL, you will help Google Chrome developers realize that they are the ones responsible for optimizing the Google Chrome code, and that you (and the users of your website, and users of the internet in general) are not willing to pay for their lack of knowledge of basic techniques that would keep the internet accessible to everyone.

If you’re a webhosting provider, and your webserver is Apache, add these lines to your Apache configuration:

<Location "/.well-known/traffic-advice">
    Redirect 404
    Header always set X-AttnGoogle "Let's not increase internet traffic because you don't know how to create a decent browser."
</Location>

Obviously, you should feel free to modify the contents of the X-AttnGoogle header, or even to delete it altogether.

If you are not a wehosting provider, but you do have a website, you can add these lines to your .htaccess file:

Redirect 404 "/.well-known/traffic-advice"
Header always set X-AttnGoogle "Let's not increase internet traffic because you don't know how to create a decent browser." "expr=%{REQUEST_URI} =~ m#^/.well-known/traffic-advice#"

And here as well: do with the X-AttnGoogle header what you want. Clearly, I cannot guarantee that the contents of this header will ever reach Google headquarters, and I’m pretty sure that even if it does, they won’t care. But, at least to me, it feels good to send a message.

If you, or your webhosting provider, are running any other webserver than Apache, I am very open to receiving alternative configurations for your webserver. Feel free to contact me at traffic-advice@ohreally.nl. Let me know if you prefer that your contribution is added anonymously.

O, and you could stop using the Google Chrome browser, which would not only benefit the internet as a whole, but also your personal life.
The following browsers are all far superior, not only because they don’t prefetch websites you were not going to visit anyway (which benefits the internet), but also in terms of speed and memory management (which benefits your PC), and in terms of privacy control and spam blocking (which benefits you as a person). So follow the links to download and install them:

  • Mozilla Firefox (available for Windows, macOS, Linux/BSD, Android, iOS)
  • Microsoft Edge (available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS)
  • Opera (available for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS)

And just so we’re clear: I am not affiliated with any of the companies or products mentioned in this article. I just think that the internet should be available to everyone, at a reasonable price and under reasonable conditions.