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Why Are Your Web Pages So Fat and Slow?

A 2000-word article is around 12kb of text, yet average web page sizes are now around 2.08MB.

A 2000-word article is around 12kb of text, yet average web page sizes are now over 3MB.

As an example, TJ VanToll, a jQuery team member and the author of “jQuery UI in Action” takes quick peek at CNN.com’s homepage. The page weighs over 2MB and uses 200+ HTTP requests from 25 domains. And, as you can see in the image, Buzzfeed’s home page is over 5MB.

buzzfeed-http-requests

 

VanToll describes the problem as an explosion of web cruft — “modals, app-install prompts, mobile web fails, ads, smobile redirects, EU cookie prompts, and the like.” Analytics packages, ad servers, plugins — Things keep getting added to the page and remain, long after their utility is at an end.

In many cases, all the benefits of broadband have been eliminated by unnecessary bloat.

via Telerik Developer Network and Hacker News.

Filed Under: Digital Journalism

Charlie Rogers Charlie Rogers

Chief content officer, editor-in-chief, managing editor, launch manager, and product strategist on dozens of digital ventures, for companies including NBC, Conde Nast, Time Warner, Martha Stewart and Random House.
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