Home » Archives for 2012

Localize External Resources – The Perils of Off-Site Widgets

Third-party widgets abound these days on the Web. Widgets, typically implemented with a snippet of JavaScript, are an easy way to add useful functionality to your website. The problem with all these widgets is they can cause indeterminate delays if any third party servers are slow.

Read more

Average Number of Web Page Objects Breaks 100 – web page object statistics and survey trends

The number of objects in the average web page has reached triple digits. In just under 4 years, the number of objects in the average top 1000 web page has doubled from 49.9 objects in January 2009 to 100 objects in November 2012 (see Figure 1). By the end of the year, the average top 1000 web page is on track to break 100 objects per page.

Read more

Splitting PDF Files – How to split large PDF files to fit in email limits

The average web page is now over 1MB in size, with each of its various components increasing in file size as well (HTTPArchive.org June 2012). PDFs can become so large that some email programs and gateways will not allow them to pass (with 5MB or 10MB file size limits). This article shows how you can efficiently split your PDF into multiple files to fit within the 5-10MB email gateway limits.

Read more

Blocking JavaScript with Web Page Test – simulate eliminating JavaScript on web page load times

With the proliferation of content management systems we’re seeing an increase in the use of JavaScript. WordPress, Movable Type, Joomla, Drupal all employ JavaScript to add enhanced functionality to their sites. Plugins abound promising Web 2.0 features, higher interactivity, and increased user engagement. The problem with this trend is that JavaScript usage is inceasing at an alarming clip (see Figure 1). The HTTArchive shows the average page uses 14 external JavaScript and 190K of code.

Read more

Blocking CSS with Web Page Test to Simulate Elimination of CSS

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) are a powerful way to style your XHTML code. Used properly, CSS can use modular layered rules to style similar elements in the same page or across an entire website. CSS optimization is an entire field in itself, utilizing shorthand properties, colors, modular CSS techniques, and even object-oriented CSS techniques ala Nicole Sullivan. CSS files like JavaScript files, however, can be overused. This article shows how to simulate the elimination of CSS file to approximate refactoring your CSS code to be smaller and to be combined within a single file.

Read more