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Auto-Optimize Websites, Google's Mod_pagespeed For Apache
By Taylor Gillespie
Expert Author
Article Date: 2010-11-04
The classic performance measure of a webpage, its load-time, is ever more pertinent in the age of complex web applications. The myriad of resources "mashed" together increases the rendering speed of the page, and the user experience suffers. Google in an on-going effort to make the web more usable and faster, promoted its profiling tool, a Page Speed plugin and in their Webmaster Tools, to help identify parts of the page that can be optimized to increase the rendering speed.
Now, with the release of Google's mod_pagespeed module for Apache, those page level optimizations can be performed on-the-fly.
Optimizations like combining common resources into one file to decrease HTTP requests and compressing or minimizing JavaScript and CSS to decrease the bandwidth used and the parsing time. Implementing the suggested optimizations results in a vast improvements in the load-time and the server resources involved. Often these optimizations need to be made at the application developer level or in the case of images at the graphic designer level. A system administrator does not have direct control of whether or not a page or site has been optimized, but by using the filters of mod_pagespeed, all of these optimizations can be realized at the server level.
The mod_pagespeed module for Apache will apply certain filters and cache the results for a faster end-user experience, but also more importantly for system administrators it results in less strain on the server-side resources. As with all "tidy" scripts that make automated, cleaning-up, changes to the underlying structure, mod_pagespeed has added risks, that Google details, such as breaking the intended layout. A modicum of being alert for unintended side-effects should suffice, while immediate gains are witnessed. Google's Page Speed module provides a way to enforce optimization with technology instead of policy.
About the Author:
Taylor is a Staff Writer for WebProNews
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