Following in Bing’s footsteps, Google has been spotted testing out its own native internet speed testing tool directly in the search results pages.
It appears that the test has not rolled out for everyone, but some searchers have reported seeing it after typing “check internet speed” into the Google search bar. The test measures download speed, upload speed, and latency. According to Google, the best internet connections have high download and upload speeds but low latency.
Looks like Google is testing their own internet speed test (query = "check internet speed") – not seeing it live — pic.twitter.com/wjsPIlEbFv
— Dr. Pete Meyers (@dr_pete) June 27, 2016
A Google Help Center document confirms the addition of this new feature, and also provides some interesting information on how the tool works. For instance, Google has partnered with Measurement Lab (M-Lab) to run the test, a company which is dedicated to providing open source internet data measurement tools.
The test is said to take just 30 seconds to complete, during which time the tool will measure your internet speed according to how much data can pass through your connection in 30 seconds. If data usage is a concern, Google says a typical test uses 9.4 MB of data, but that number could vary depending on how fast your connection is.
