Chrome developers are preparing a new feature to make back/forward navigation faster

Google is working on a feature that could speed up browsing on Chrome in the future. It involves the creation of a back/forward cache, or bfcache. This will allow the storage of an entire webpage's state in memory, in case a user wants to return to it from the next page, and so on. Chrome's developers maintain that this use-case is quite plausible. They assert that 19% of all Chrome use on mobile platforms involve the use of the back or forward buttons. 

Therefore, it seems that the finished bfcache product could make Chrome considerably faster in the future. However, the wholesale saving of webpage data, JavaScript included, could lead to the increased risk of privacy and security breaches. Addy Osmani, a member of the Chrome engineering team, has given an interview with CNET in which he addressed this issue. Osmani claimed that the entire architecture of the app will be re-designed so as to avoid possibilities such as the inclusion of malicious programs in bfcache.

This may mean that such an upgrade for Chrome may not be available for some time. It should be noted that Safari and Firefox already incorporate measures very similar to bfcache. However, this will just mean that inter-browser interoperability will not be a problem when Google's own take on this navigation-latency optimization comes into effect.