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Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

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Re: Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

#2
Does web performance matter? For Tumblr and other light blogging service providers, clearly it does and it made a big difference. A recent New York Times article pointed out that "Tumblr Leaves Posterous In the Dust". Both are leading light blogging service providers. However, Tumblr has out-grown Posterous significantly over the last year. Why? it looks like that one big reason is that Tumblr has been twice as fast as Posterous.

Re: Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

#5
post #3

Tumblr would be even faster if their Javascript was a bit lighter. They use Prototype and various unneeded scripts.

Yes, but that's only loaded once and then cached, so it's not such a big deal.

no, actually it does matter. Browser caching is not reliable and only covers around 20% to 25% of requests (according to GoogleMaps JS caching behavior stats). So it matters quite a bit.

Re: Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

#6
This is a terrible article.

The bald assertion that Tumblr is more successful than Posterous because it is faster is repeated about a half dozen times during the piece but no evidence is ever advanced to prove this point.

Without further data, at best, we're talking a correlation. I could similarly argue that dropping the 'e' in Tumblr is a 'big reason' Tumblr is more successful than Posterous (which, please note, contains an 'e'!).

Re: Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

#7
post #6

This is a terrible article. The bald assertion that Tumblr is more successful than Posterous because it is faster is repeated about a half dozen times during the piece but no evidence is ever advanced to prove this point. Without further data, at best, we're talking a correlation. I could similarly argue that dropping the 'e' in Tumblr is a 'big reason' Tumblr is more successful than Posterous (which, please note, co…

Does a fast site help improve business success(comparing to a slower site similar in functionality)? Of course it does. Does performance play a role? It does. Is it the only reason? No.

The article does not pinpoint the success or failure of a business into a single reason. The article didn't claim "performance is The reason" that Tumblr is successful. It says "performance is most likely one of the key factors".

Re: Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

#8
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but that's only loaded once and then cached, so it's not such a big deal.

no, actually it does matter. Browser caching is not reliable and only covers around 20% to 25% of requests (according to GoogleMaps JS caching behavior stats). So it matters quite a bit.

It's not just about the requests. Some developers forget that not everyone has 8gb of RAM and a quad-core CPU. Those scripts add up and clog both memory and CPU time.

Re: Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

#9
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, but that's only loaded once and then cached, so it's not such a big deal.

no, actually it does matter. Browser caching is not reliable and only covers around 20% to 25% of requests (according to GoogleMaps JS caching behavior stats). So it matters quite a bit.

Really? That's new to me.

Re: Tumblr wins because it's twice as fast

#10
post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

no, actually it does matter. Browser caching is not reliable and only covers around 20% to 25% of requests (according to GoogleMaps JS caching behavior stats). So it matters quite a bit.

Really? That's new to me.

http://www.yuiblog.com/blog/2007/01/04/performance-research-...

Towards the end of the article

>> Suprising Results

40-60% of Yahoo!’s users have an empty cache experience and ~20% of all page views are done with an empty cache. To my knowledge, there’s no other research that shows this kind of information...

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