Google Open Sources Page Speed Performance Tool
by Lisa Hoover - Jun. 05, 2009Comments (1)- Related Blog Posts
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To make sure Web pages load quickly and perform as expected, Google uses a Firefox add-on called Page Speed. It's integrated with Web development toolkit Firebug and provides immediate feedback on ways to improve sites that are sluggish to load. Google has announced a decision to open source Page Speed and share it with the Web-building community.
Page Speed works by testing a site's front-end code and Web server configurations, then checks them against a set of best practices for Web page performance. The results return a score for the page and suggestions for tweaks that may improve the page's speed.
"For example, Page Speed automatically optimizes images for you, giving you a compressed image that you can use immediately on your web site. It also identifies issues such as JavaScript and CSS loaded by your page that wasn't actually used to display the page, which can help reduce time your users spend waiting for the page to download and display," writes the Page Speed team.
If you run into any issues with Speed Page, there's a forum and plenty of documentation to help you out.
