Home » Archives for 2008

Average Top 100 Weblog Performance Survey – results of load size analysis of technorati top 100 weblogs compared to top 1000 websites

How do the top 100 weblogs compare with the 1000 most popular websites? What are the differences in size and performance between these two samples? What conclusions can we draw about advertising use between and within the two surveys? To find out, we updated a survey by Pingdom, an uptime monitoring company based in Sweden, who recently analyzed the top 100 blog home pages listed in Technorati for their size, composition, and web site performance. This article summarizes Pingdom’s findings, adds a CSS analysis, compares the top 100 blogs with the top 1000 websites, and offers some advice.

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Evolution of the Web from 2000 to 2007 – average web object size quintuples since 2000

The Web has changed dramatically over the past seven years. During that time the Web has moved from a static one-way medium toward a dynamic platform for interactive services such as photo and video sharing portals. In a comparative survey of data traces served over the Web from 2000 and 2007, University of Twente researchers found that the nature of web sites has changed (Sadre and Haverkort, 2008).

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Solid-State Drive Web Server Test – upgrade server speed with benchmarking tools

This article shows how response times improved after upgrading to a new dedicated web server with solid-state drives and faster processors. With the increased load due to our free Web Page Analyzer, we realized that a different server configuration may be necessary. We first benchmarked our current server to establish a baseline. Then we tested a faster server to see the improvement in response times. After the upgrade, the web server tested 35% faster. In a future article, we’ll look at moving the resource hungry analyzer tool to a separate server to improve performance for the WebsiteOptimization.com website.

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Optimize Drop Shadows – minimize image size with graphic optimization of drop shadow and photoshop

Drop shadows add impact to web graphics, but they also impact file size. You can minimize the resulting file size of palette-based images such as GIFs and PNGs by reducing the complexity of drop shadows. This article shows how to create optimized drop-shadows in Photoshop to minimize the size of web graphics.

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The Psychology of Web Performance – how slow response times affect user psychology

Previous research has shown that user frustration increases when page load times exceed eight to 10 seconds, without feedback (Bouch, Kuchinsky, and Bhatti 2000, King 2003)., Newer evidence shows that broadband users are less tolerant of web page delays than narrowband users. A JupiterResearch survey found that 33% of broadband shoppers are unwilling to wait more than four seconds for a web page to load, whereas 43% of narrowband users will not wait more than six seconds (Akamai 2006).

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Inline Images with Data URLs – embed graphics inline with data uri scheme

Inline images use the data URI scheme to embed images directly within web pages. As defined by RFC 2397, data URIs are designed to embed small data items as “immediate” data, as if they were referenced externally. Using inline images saves HTTP requests over externally referenced objects.

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The Cost of Banner Advertising on Web Performance – internet advertising slows web page downloads

Advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry on the Web. The Internet Advertising Bureau reported that web advertising grew by nearly 34 percent in 2006 over 2005, totaling about $16.8 billion (IAB 2007). The yearly growth rate of Internet ads is increasing at 28.6% per year, while the overall ad industry drags along with an increase of only 7.7% a year (Baker 2004).

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