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How seriously do you take page loading speeds in the broadband age?

Posted by wandadog13 • 12/01/08 • Subscribe to this Discussion [RSS] • Report This Topic
Topics: download speeds, google, optimisation

Was a time when everyone was on dial-up and web designers had to program accordingly.

Now with broadband and fibre everywhere it seems, have you stopped catering for dial up viewers (well potential ones anyway)?

Have designers got lazy? Is there an argument for adopting a more streamlined approach once more and delivering a page quicker?

Google reckons its going to start factoring in download times as part of the search results. All the content in the world won't help if it takes too long for it to appear and be read.

User Comments

12/01/08

siralmo

thats interesting

what does google factor in at the moment?

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12/01/08

dratiffarid

I prefer sites that load fast. Okay, even if the whole page doesn't load - at least the posts should load quick. I don't care much if the ads take time.

And I hate it when the pictures in posts take time to load.

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12/01/08

bladeaxe4

i compressed my CSS and even compressed every bit of code... and pages do load up much faster !

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12/01/08

CrisRo

I'm on a dedicated 2.5mb line (odd number, I know, but my isp is crap...I'm paying $55 for that...only broadband I can get where I live)so I have the 3 minute rule. If three minutes pass and nothing on your page loads, I leave because either:

Your webpage is bunk
Your ISP is down
You should seriously reconsider your design

Naturally designers are gearing their content towards broadband (though some still have a slow connection set of pages for dial-up users).
However, if you make your webcontent dial-up friendly, you are most likely going to wave goodbye to much of your oomph. So, I don't see streamlining as a viable alternative unless there are some nice hard facts.

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12/01/08

wandadog13

great comments my friends - keep 'em coming....

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