Google unveils a new image format for the Web that the company claims would save large amounts of bandwidth. The format, which has been named WebP (pronounced "weppy"), has been said to drastically reduce the file sizes of images.

"Most of the common image formats on the web today were established over a decade ago and are based on technology from around that time," the company said.

"Some engineers at Google decided to figure out if there was a way to further compress lossy images like JPEG to make them load faster, while still preserving quality and resolution... As part of this effort, we are releasing a developer preview of a new image format, WebP, that promises to significantly reduce the byte size of photos on the web, allowing web sites to load faster than before," said Google Product Manager Richard Rabbat.

Earlier this year, the company released its WebM open-source video format to compete against the proprietary H.264 codec. The WebP format's image compression algorithm is based on the VP8 codec that is part of WebM.

Google claims that, on average, its new image compression algorithms generate a file size that is 39 percent smaller yet retains similar levels of visual quality as ubiquitous image file formats such as JPEG. The company's test involved a relative sample of one million Web photos that were in JPEG, PNG and GIF formats.

The company plans to introduce support for the WebP format in the Google Chrome web browser. Google is also in talks to introduce the format to Mozilla and Opera.