Been reading about web site optimization (WSO), which stresses the importance of small, fast-loading web pages, that are lite on graphics.
First thing I did after analyzing some of my web pages in this cool analyzer .. was to remove the Lightbox script (even tho it was way cool), cuz it was costing me nearly 200-KB. (Ouch!)
Never realized Lightbox was so big. Actually Lightbox itself is only 18-KB, but it uses/needs Prototype.js (which is 124-KB) and Effects.js (which is 40-KB).
Didn't take long, once I delved into the world of WSO, before I began hearing about the virtues of » HTML compression.
Like WinZip for web servers, HTML compression squeezes web pages before sending them to you, which saves bandwidth. (Radified uses ~50 gigs monthly.)
••• today's entry continues here below •••
It also crunches CSS and Javascript files, which are also text-based. Web-based graphics (jpeg's & gif's) are already compressed, so they don't get re-compressed.
HTML compression is accomplished via Apache mods, such as mod_gzip or mod_deflate.
Mod_gzip hasn't been updated since 2002. The Rad VPS uses Apache v2.2.9, which is the most recent version (released June 2008.) Mod_gzip does not work with Apache 2.x
But mod_deflate does. It does the same thing as mod_gzip by using gzip compression. Talked to my host about it. They said:
HTML compression saves bandwidth and improves page-load times. It can easily be added to your server via EasyApache, which is the cPanel interface used to recompile Apache (and PHP). HTML compression is not enabled by default because it can cause problems with sites using Flash streaming applets.
We started using Apache mod_deflate today to compress all HTML, CSS & Javascript files. You can verify compression by using this service. Notice where it now says: "Congratulations. This site is using HTTP compression."
The Rad VPS server has plenty of CPU power to spare, so you shouldn't notice any delays due to compression, and the smaller (compressed) files should load faster. Lemme know if you notice any problems.
