Google Offers to Make Websites Fast - Fails

Mark.J · Jul 29, 2011

I had a bit of a laugh after trying Google's new Page Speed Service, which claims that it "fetches content from your servers, rewrites your pages by applying web performance best practices, and serves them to end users via Google's servers across the globe". This can apparently make your website between 25% and 60% faster.

Naturally I gave it a try on ISPreview.co.uk's front page, which usually only takes around 2 seconds to finish loading (ironically it'd probably take 1 second if it wasn't for Google's own translation and ad systems). Here's the results (first score is our original speed, second is the new speed) and remember that Google isn't using UK servers for this.. the nearest we could pick was Ireland.

Page Load Time
3.753s [Current]
4.221s [New]
+0.468s (12.5%)

Start Render Time
1.648s [Current]
1.720s [New]
+0.072s (4.4%)

Repeat View Page Load Time
2.572s [Current]
3.103s [New]
+0.531s (20.6%)

Repeat View Start Render Time
1.378s [Current]
1.697s [New]
+0.319s (23.1%)

So, nice try Google, and thanks for making ISPreview.co.uk between 4.4% and 23.1% slower to load. We'll skip your service, if you don't mind

.

http://www.webpagetest.org/compare

MrJ · Jul 29, 2011

Even more interesting is that Google hasn't optimised their own website enough! They claim google.co.uk can be 10-40% faster.... http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110729_0Q_3a23c13b8436f7953e85ecf06cf5fa45/ - same with google.com http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110729_Z8_f0330417d8d470b7613e1a9d50a771ec/

Also, it seems they fail optimising the site that lets us know that our sites aren't optisimised enough (60% slower repeat rendering) .... http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110729_DZ_84a108df7a87f6e9bad1fe1672792937/

uno · Jul 29, 2011

You should try and call the JS at the top, and load at the bottom. Won't break anything but will vastly decrease page load times.

Might also be worth looking at LiteSpeed.

Matt

Invictel · Jul 30, 2011

All our sites run Wordpress....... I know, seems weird using a blogging platform to make sales/support websites etc, but works well.

Wordpress have a plugin you can install that compresses all your pages, thus decreasing load times. Works for me

timeless · Jul 31, 2011

l use Xcache, which needs installing directly on the server.. tho its allot of work.. works well when set up properly tho XD

Mark.J · Aug 1, 2011

Invictel said:
Wordpress have a plugin you can install that compresses all your pages, thus increasing load times. Works for me

I think you mean "decreasing"

.

Invictel · Aug 1, 2011

Mark.J said:
I think you mean "decreasing" .

Haha good spot. Post edited

timeless · Aug 2, 2011

long day? lol

Invictel · Aug 2, 2011

timeless said:
long day? lol

Every day is a long one :smilet:

timeless · Aug 3, 2011

guess we can thank the heat for that amongst other things.

Captain_Cretin · Aug 6, 2011

Heat?? You want heat come to Nanning; it hasnt dropped below 30C at NIGHT for weeks

sentup.custard · Aug 6, 2011

come to Nanning

Now, is that...
(1) Knowing your Chinese interests, the modern name for Nanking...
(2) A typo for Nanking...
(3) One of zillions of Chinese villages that I haven't encountered while tracing umpteen girls in the family tree who decided that going to China as a missionary was more interesting than twiddling their thumbs in Hampstead, Sowerby Bridge, or wherever...
(4) An obscure Worcestershire hamlet which is so small that it isn't on the Ordnance Survey map, which some enterprising person has managed to fit into a greenhouse.

?

Invictel · Aug 6, 2011

sentup.custard said:
Now, is that...
(1) Knowing your Chinese interests, the modern name for Nanking...
(2) A typo for Nanking...
(3) One of zillions of Chinese villages that I haven't encountered while tracing umpteen girls in the family tree who decided that going to China as a missionary was more interesting than twiddling their thumbs in Hampstead, Sowerby Bridge, or wherever...
(4) An obscure Worcestershire hamlet which is so small that it isn't on the Ordnance Survey map, which some enterprising person has managed to fit into a greenhouse.

?

*chuckles*

Captain_Cretin · Aug 6, 2011

It is a city of 4.5 million people, the capital of Guangxi province, near the Vietnam border (relatively speaking, about 4 hours by bus).

We popped over to the Vietnamese border to visit one of asias largest waterfalls on Thursday.

If you go back far enough it had a different name, but we are talking pre communist era; so no, not a typo, although in some places the name is split into two parts, so Nan Ning.

I am here for about 4 months, getting married and helping my new swmbo get her UK settlement visa (wedding on the 19th August).
I'll put some photos in my album when I get it sorted out, it's saying I am over quota right now,

MrJ · Aug 6, 2011

come to Nanning

sentup.custard said:
Now, is that...
(1) Knowing your Chinese interests, the modern name for Nanking...
(2) A typo for Nanking...

The modern name (for Nanking) is Nanjing, which is much nearer to Shanghai in the East of the country

sentup.custard · Aug 6, 2011

Oh gosh - that shows you how much I know about China, doesn't it?

:laugh:
Seriously, though, thanks to you both for the information - I do like to learn.

I don't think any of my girls went anywhere near the Vietnam end of the country, they seem to turn up either in well-known places like Hong Kong or Shanghai, or go to the other extreme and turn up in some tinpot place in the desert.

One of them evidently didn't think much of the shops, though, and popped across to Tesco's in Victoria, British Columbia. Emily Turner, who died in 1933, is shown in the calendar entry for her will as "of Shaohingfu Chekiang China" but died in Victoria, BC.
It doesn't say what she died of, and I don't have the death certificate from BC yet, but I blame the "All Day Breakfast".

Captain_Cretin · Aug 7, 2011

The only thing that has come close to killing me so far has been an ice lolly; they dont have refridgerated transports for the smaller shops, so the damn things 1/2 melt, then get frozen again; a great way to breed e coli and other nasties. I couldnt eat for 2 days and my stomach was unhappy for about a week in total.

Victoria, BC is rather a long haul from China; I am fairly certain there is a closer branch of Tescos, although if it is like Walmart, it is not worth the journey. Walmart opend with a fanfare and was stocked full of western goodies, but as they sold, they were replaced with bog standard Chinese fare, and now you cannot even find plum tomatoes to make a proper spag bol, let alone OXO cubes or Bisto gravy.:crap:

MrJ · Aug 7, 2011

Tesco has over 94 stores in China - none in Guanxi however ... you'd have to go all the way to Guangzhou to find one (http://www.cn.tesco.com/StoresPosition.html) - I guess you will be going there when you apply for the settlement visa. Though other supermarkets there, like Park'n'Shop will also stock a good sause

You should be able to find some spaghetti sauce though within the imports section of your local Walmart

`though a little surprised you can't find any plum tomatoes anywhere, especially when a lot of the food seems to be grown fairly large (once found a potato as large as my foot...).

ananymous · Aug 7, 2011

LOL, rewrite? I didn't even understand any of this!:L

Captain_Cretin · Aug 8, 2011

We have hijacked the thread slightly!! Perhaps Mark will notice and split it off.

Anyway, I dont buy sauce, I make my own, hence wanting plum tomatoes, plenty of other varieties around here, but no plum toms.

I know what you mean about the size of fruit and veg though, the local grapes are HUGE, the size of plums. I read somewhere recently that the soil in Southern China is so rich, you could plant a walking stick and it would root and grow.

Google Offers to Make Websites Fast - Fails

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