Chrome beta removes once-neccessary artifical click delay

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Chrome Beta

Double-tap listening improved while pinch zooming remains in latest Chrome beta build

If you’ve ever used a mobile web browser (I think that applies to all of us) you have experienced a self-imposed 300 millisecond delay between the time you tap something and it is registered as a click. This is a big part of the reason that mobile web browsing seems more disjointed and sluggish that what we’re used to from a desktop machine, and why native applications seem to work better than HTML 5 web-based versions.

Starting with Chrome 32, now in Beta for Android, all this changes. 

The delay was originally imposed because your browser has to listen for a double-tap. Based on the page width, some dynamic CSS, and your screen size double-tapping is a great way to zoom the content. But if a web-page is written well for mobile, there is no need for the double-tapping. When your phone doesn’t have to listen for it, it can turn taps into clicks instantly — and still retain all the pinch-zooming you would ever want.

Google’s own Jake Archibald has a nice little video showing the difference. We’ve dropped that in after the break, And the source link has all the technical details for web developers and interested parties.

Source: HTML5 Rocks