Google launches Squoosh, an open source online image conversion app

Google Chrome Labs has released a new online image conversion app by the name of Squoosh. The open source tool is essentially a simple browser-based image editor, and the focus is very much on speed.

Showcased at the Chrome Dev Summit, Squoosh is not limited to working only in Chrome -- other browsers are also supported. While the conversion options are useful to many people, Squoosh is really an opportunity for Google to show off new web technologies.

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On the face of things, Squoosh is a pretty simple tool, but it works very well, and there are some powerful technologies working away in the background -- and there's no denying that it is fast. With an image loaded, you have access to a range of simple options to reduce its size.

You can reduce the physical dimensions of an image, reduce the color palette, and use a range of compression techniques. As you tweak your image, you can use a slider to compare before and after side by side just to ensure you are not losing too much quality in the name of optimization.

Check out the video below to see the tool in action:

Head over to the Squoosh website to try out the tool. The source code is available on GitHub.