When I first learned how to program a computer, optimization was a big deal. Figuring out how to squeeze every bit of performance out of a subroutine was difficult but rewarding. Articles were frequently written about how to best go about optimizing source code.

In the late 1990s, I began working on my first web applications. Bandwidth was expensive, so we worked on ways to make our websites more compact. We compressed web pages and figured out ways to strip out whitespace. However, today websites have quite a bit going on in the front of the house. There’s a lot of JavaScript and CSS that gets passed to the browser, and as a result, web applications are transmitting more data than ever.

Tammy Everts writes a blog called Web Performance Today, where she follows trends in web application development. It is essential for web developers to pay attention to the amount of data they send to users and how that affects application performance.

https://twitter.com/tameverts/status/555780016563564544

Ms Everts has shown over and over that web pages are growing. She points out that the average web page has grown 186% since 2010, and it shows no sign of stopping. I believe that every responsible web developer owes it to himself ((Or herself.)) to follow Ms Everts’ blog.

Please, fellow web developers, pay attention to how big your web pages are getting. Let’s reverse this trend.