"We implemented SSL False Start in Chrome 9, and the results are stunning, yielding a significant decrease in overall SSL connection setup times. SSL False Start reduces the latency of a SSL handshake by 30%1. That is a big number. And reducing the cost of a SSL handshake is critical as more and more content providers move to SSL." - Amit Patel from Bookmarklet

Google keeps trying to make the web faster! - Amit Patel

I'm not for all of Google's attempts to make it faster. Doesn't SPDY forgo HTTP as a text-based protocol to a more binary format? I'm not in favor of that in the name of performance. - Andy Bakun

As far as I can tell (and I haven't experimented with SPDY at all so I might be mistaken) HTTP runs on top of SPDY sort of like how vi runs on top of screen+ssh. Yes, the data going over TCP is binary but the application is using HTTP, with slight modifications. The SPDY layer gives multiplexing, compression, encryption. I don't know if it'll get adopted. The SSL False Start thing is separate, for standard HTTPS, and it seems like a big win for so little work, and I hope it works out. - Amit Patel