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HTMLHelp Forums _ Off Topic _ Bloated websites
Posted by: Christian J Jul 5 2015, 09:08 AM
Here's a nice summary of today's situation on the web: https://adactio.com/journal/8956
Posted by: pandy Jul 5 2015, 09:25 AM
Posted by: Christian J Jul 13 2015, 07:55 PM
http://money.cnn.com/2015/06/16/technology/web-slow-big/index.html
The average site is now 2.1 MB in size -- two times larger than the average site from three years ago, according to data tracked by HTTP Archive.
...
Websites are adding more attention-attracting videos, images, interactivity plug-ins (comments and feeds) and other code and script-heavy features that clog up broadband pipes and wireless spectrum.
Sites also have ramped up their usage of tracking and analysis tools to learn more about their visitors. Inserting third-party data trackers not only increases a website's weight, but also the number of separate data fetching tasks, which leads to slower load times as well.
...
The component that has grown the most in size, surprisingly, is custom fonts. Developers are creating unique fonts to differentiate themselves from everyone else online. Three years ago, font transfer size was less than 1% of a webpage's weight, and now the proportion is up to 5%.
...
The slower a Web page loads the more likely it is we'll leave for a competitor's site.
Posted by: pandy Jul 13 2015, 08:33 PM
It's the same as with software. The larger and faster computers we get, the bigger and more resource hungry the programs get - even if they don't do more than yesterday's programs. The more bandwidth and transfer the average internet user is allowed, the heavier sites get.
Posted by: Terminator Jul 13 2015, 09:39 PM
Images are def one of the causes of increased size for me. A PNG "Save as for web" in Photoshop has a much larger file size that just JPG "Save as". But the image quality is usually much better.
Posted by: Christian J Jul 14 2015, 08:40 AM
It's the same as with software. The larger and faster computers we get, the bigger and more resource hungry the programs get - even if they don't do more than yesterday's programs. The more bandwidth and transfer the average internet user is allowed, the heavier sites get.
Yes: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parkinson's_law
But the poor average user is tricked into buying faster computers and faster Internet connections to keep up with the bloat. Lately a friend asked me if he should get a new computer since his old one loaded web pages so slow. I suggested installing an ad blocker, but instead he went and bought a tablet where the OS makes ad blocking even harder to achieve.
Posted by: Christian J Jul 14 2015, 09:05 AM
Images are def one of the causes of increased size for me. A PNG "Save as for web" in Photoshop has a much larger file size that just JPG "Save as". But the image quality is usually much better.
I wouldn't say PNG image quality is better than JPG for photos, but for other kinds of images (e.g. with solid blocks of color, or transparency) both PNG and GIF should be better than JPG (and often with smaller file sizes than JPG). Some good examples here: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/2336522/png-vs-gif-vs-jpeg-when-best-to-use
But images are also used differently nowadays. For example, Paypal.com plays a meaningless video over half of its homepage area. The bandwidth cost is of course passed on to its customers.
Posted by: Christian J Jul 24 2015, 02:14 PM
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2015/07/24/want_to_save_electricity_avoid_the_inew_york_timesi_bod_says/
Posted by: Terminator Aug 1 2015, 09:45 AM
I bet abcnews.com is a bloated site too. BTW that register.co.uk link is showing that it is trying to install malware according to my AntiVirus, which just blocked it.
Posted by: Christian J Aug 1 2015, 08:05 PM
I bet abcnews.com is a bloated site too.
They all are.
Maybe it's their own ad- and tracker bloat.
I block all that so I wouldn't notice. Hopefully it's a false positive. Posted by: Terminator Aug 1 2015, 11:50 PM
It could be a false positive, when I first started C++ it was giving a false positive every time I complied a program. Had to shut off antivirus access to the entire C++ folder in order to stop.
I use Avast, not only because it is free, but it is better than when I used Trend. I got viruses and Malware all the time with Trend, and Avast blocks those and notifies immediately.
I try to stay away from websites that show a "best of list" or photos sideshow in which you have to click through the list page by page. Those are usually Malware sites, and if you search Google you can find the original site they stole the list or photos from, virus free.
Posted by: Christian J Nov 2 2016, 02:53 PM
More about the abuse of script libraries:
We accord one another status for serving our own personal gratification through the use of new tools. Meanwhile we completely forget about the people we’re actually supposed to be working for: our users.
The web development community has gone off the rails. It must be restored to sanity.
I agree, script library (tool) use seems to be more of a fashion statement than something that's actually useful.
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