The Complete Guide to WebP: History, Technology, and Impact
WebP's story begins with Google's acquisition of On2 Technologies in 2010. The company's VP8 video codec technology became the foundation for what would become WebP. Google's engineers recognized that many principles used in video compression could be applied to still images, potentially offering significant advantages over existing formats like JPEG and PNG.
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The Birth of WebP
WebP's story begins with Google's acquisition of On2 Technologies in 2010. The company's VP8 video codec technology became the foundation for what would become WebP. Google's engineers recognized that many principles used in video compression could be applied to still images, potentially offering significant advantages over existing formats like JPEG and PNG.
The name "WebP" itself is clever wordplay, pronounced "weppy," following the naming convention of other formats like JPEG (jay-peg) and MPEG (em-peg). The 'Web' prefix clearly indicates its primary purpose: optimizing images for the web.
Convert your images to WebP
WebP's story begins with Google's acquisition of On2 Technologies in 2010. The company's VP8 video codec technology became the foundation for what would become WebP. Google's engineers recognized that many principles used in video compression could be applied to still images, potentially offering significant advantages over existing formats like JPEG and PNG.