This is article #1 of a 4-part series. This article (along with Article #2) serves as a primer for the last two entries in this series, which discuss the most efficient way to put these concepts into practice in your web application. For more a more in-depth look at these concepts, see Yahoo!’s Best Practices for Speeding Up Your Web Site and Google’s Speed Tracer tutorial

Page load speed is becoming increasingly important as rich web applications become more interactive. It’s not just about usability anymore; it can now directly affect your placement in search engine results, now that Google uses page load speed in their ranking algorithm. Are you ready for a reality check? Get Google Webmaster Tools for your site, and go to the Labs >> Site Performance to view your average page load time, as seen by Google’s web crawlers. That’s right, Google is already tracking your site’s performance history.

Google Webmaster Tools is even kind enough to tell you how you stack up against the rest of the web. Here is what Webmaster Tools had to say about one of our sites before optimizing it for quick page loading:

On average, pages in your site take 4.5 seconds to load (updated on Feb 21, 2010). This is slower than 70% of sites. These estimates are of low accuracy (fewer than 100 data points). The chart below shows how your site’s average page load time has changed over the last few months. For your reference, it also shows the 20th percentile value across all sites, separating slow and fast load times.

Ouch. Did I mention this would be a painful reality check?

Now to be fair, there’s a very reasonable explanation for this. Google claims that the majority of users will click “back” to the search results page if a link takes too long to load. So, if a webpage is too slow for the visitor to read it, the relevance of the content is…well, irrelevant. I should point out, however, that it’s unknown precisely how much page load speed affects your placement in search results.

What is Included in Page Load Time?

At first, you may think that Google crawlers only index the initial load-time of the HTML. You’d be wrong. They actually include the time it takes to load all Javascript files, CSS stylesheets, images, etc. Now it’s time to see how your site performs. For this, you’ll need either the Page Speed extension for Firefox, or for an even better look into your site’s performance, get Speed Tracer for Chrome. And of course, there’s always the ever-popular YSlow extension for Firefox from Yahoo!

Watch Your Assets

Your website’s assets include all of the files the visitor’s browser must download to render your webpage. This includes Javascript files, CSS stylesheets, and images. And according you Yahoo!:

80-90% of the end-user response time is spent downloading all the components in the page: images, stylesheets, scripts, Flash, etc.

*the post below was originally written Dec 9, 2009, while this screenshot was captured on Dec 30, when the post was *published, which explains the slight discrepency... I didn't feel like going back and rewriting it

The Point

The other day, I went to search for something on Google and noticed some interesting results from Google’s suggest feature after typing just one letter. Wow, I thought. How presumptuous of Google to think it can guess my will and desires from one letter. Of course that then led to curiosity, and hence this post. What terms manage to garner the top 10 spots for each letter of the English alphabet? So without further ado, the top 10 terms for each letter on Google’s suggest feature (along with some of my comments).

Interesting Statistics

• Brand names: 195 (75%)
• Generic Search Terms: 44 (16.9%)
• TV Shows / Movies: 6 (2.3%)
• Famous People / Bands: 9 (3.5%)
• Search Engines: 6 (2.3%)

Award of Awesomeness:

It’s a tie between Facebook and Yahoo, both for earning top spots in “w” for “www.facebook.com” and “www.yahoo.com” of all things. My hat is off to you both.

Multiple Entries

The winner for multiple entries is Yahoo, followed by Google (thought this is no doubt helped by the fact that most of Google’s competing services are directly linked to from Google’s home screen and thus don’t need to be searched for… not to mention the fact that there is less competition for the letter “y”).

• at&t: 2
• bank of america: 2
• comcast: 2
• ebay: 3
• facebook: 3
• google (including gmail): 6
• itunes: 2
• ikea: 2
• mapquest: 2
• myspace: 2
• quotes: 4
• ups: 2
• verizon: 3
• virgin: 2
• yahoo: 8
• zune: 2

a

• amazon
• aol
• american airlines
• addicting games
• ask.com *interesting that one of the top results in the Google search engine is another search engine
• at&t *people actually type the ampersand into the search box
• at&t wireless
• autotrader
• apple *Apple makes it difficult for people who want to find information about fruit
• american airlines

b

• bank of america
• best buy
• bed bath and beyond
• bank of america online banking
• barnes and noble
• bing *another search engine
• blockbuster
• baby names *notice that the vast majority of suggested terms are brand names… this is not
• burlington coat factory
• borders

c

• craigslist
• cnn
• comcast.net
• costco
• chase
• club penguin
• capital one
• comcast
• continental airlines
• cartoon network

d

• dictionary.com
• dictionary *function people can search… like dictionary “idiosyncratic” where google has a dictionary function
• disney channel
• delta airlines
• direct tv
• dell
• dillards
• dominos *another example of a proper noun making it difficult to search for a common noun… seriously, I want to know more about how to play
• dancing with the stars *this is one popular show
• daylight savings 2009

e

• ebay
• espn
• expedia
• ebay.com
• express
• ebay motors
• english to spanish translation
• evite
• enterprise
• erin andrews

f

• facebook
• facebook login
• fox news
• food network
• firefox
• fandango
• forever 21
• fedex
• free online games
• fedex tracking

g

• gmail
• google maps
• google earth
• google.com *damn kids trying to break the internet!
• games
• gamestop
• glee
• google translate
• google wave
• geico

h

• hotmail
• hulu
• home depot
• halloween costumes
• h1n1 symptoms
• hollister
• horoscope
• hobby lobby
• hotels.com
• hp

i

• imdb
• ikea
• itunes
• inspirational quotes
• itunes download
• irs
• iphone
• ikea usa
• isohunt
• inglorious bastards

j

• jet blue
• jcpenney
• justin tv
• joann fabrics
• justin bieber
• jobs
• jokes
• java
• jimmy johns
• jcrew

k

• kohls
• kelly blue book
• kmart
• kayak
• kinkos
• kings of leon
• kroger
• kanye west
• kim kardashian
• kaiser permanente

l

• lowes
• lyrics
• limewire
• lady gaga
• love quotes
• linkedin
• lands end
• louis vuitton
• ll bean lego

m

• myspace
• mapquest
• msn
• maps *yeah this could conceivably be counted as a brand name (someone on Google searching for maps is probably looking for Google maps), but we’re going to give it the benefit of the doubt as a generic term
• mapquest driving directions
• macys
• mega millions
• mortgage calculator
• myspace layouts
• miniclip

n

• netflix
• nfl.com
• new york times
• nordstrom
• northwest airlines
• nbc
• nickelodeon
• new moon
• nick jr
• news

o

• office depot
• old navy
• orbitz
• overstock
• office max
• oprah
• online games
• olive garden
• owl city
• open office

p

• pandora
• party city
• photobucket
• pizza hut *who takes the top spot for the coveted pizza spot for “p”
• papa johns
• paypal
• poptropica
• powerball
• pirate bay
• people of walmart

q

• quotes *people love quotes
• qvc
• quotes about life
• quest diagnostics
• quicktime
• quiznos
• quotes about love
• qwest
• quizzes
• quotes and sayings

r

• realtor.com
• reverse phone lookup
• radio shack
• redbox
• runescape
• recipes
• rei
• restoration hardware
• rotten tomatoes
• rate my professor

s

• southwest airlines
• swine flu symptoms
• sears
• spanish translation
• skype
• staples
• sprint
• sams club
• sports authority
• sparknotes

t

• target
• twitter
• thesaurus
• travelocity
• translator
• ticketmaster
• tmobile
• tv guide
• tmz
• toys r us

u

• usps
• ups
• united airlines
• ups tracking
• us airways
• urban dictionary
• ufc
• urban outfitters
• usaa
• us bank

v

• verizon wireless
• verizon
• victoria secret
• vampire diaries
• vlc
• virgin america
• vh1
• verizon.net
• virgin mobile
• value city furniture

w

• walmart
• weather
• white pages
• wikipedia
• www.facebook.com
• web md
• www.yahoo.com
• webkinz
• wells fargo
• walgreens

x

• xbox 360
• xm radio
• xbox live
• xkcd
• xanax
• xcel energy
• xm radio online
• xbox 360 games
• xbox 720
• xbmc

y

• youtube
• yahoo
• yahoo mail
• yellow pages
• yahoo.com mail
• yahoo answers
• yahoo maps
• youtube music
• yahoo finance
• yahoo fantasy football

z

• zillow
• zappos
• zip codes
• zip codes by city
• zombieland
• zodiac signs
• zune
• zune hd
• zero punctuation
• zabasearch