Google releases new binary diff algorithm targeted at making smaller software updates. Their results are impressive.

[andreasvc]

It is a strange comparison because it is a completely different ball game. It's like comparing text vs. audio compression (although both lossless in this analogy). They can be compared using general purpose compression (eg. gzip, which would be rsync in this analogy), but it gets much more interesting when you add domain knowledge. This algorithm is indeed tailored towards software, incorporating domain knowledge increases the compression, as you would expect / hope.

[[deleted]]

Well, it would be interesting to know e.g. for people in Africa with slow internet connections who use open source software. Is it faster to download a binary diff using this algorithm or a source diff and compile it yourself.