Web Page Analyzer 0.98 Released - New CMS Performance Analysis Services - US Drops to 19th in Broadband Penetration Worldwide - Optimization Week of September 30, 2008
Optimization Week Issue #100, September 30, 2008
Welcome to our 100th issue. It has been nearly 5 years since the first issue of Optimization Week hit the digital shelves. To celebrate our centennial issue we're announcing some major upgrades and services. First we've updated the Web Page Analyzer to version 0.98, featuring performance improvements, HTMLTidy and CSSTidy integration, and updated HCI thresholds based on the latest research. Behind the scenes we've upgraded our server to handle the increased load. We've added a new set of CMS-based performance services, and published a worldwide survey of broadband trends.
- Web Page Analyzer 0.98
- Web Page Analyzer 0.98 is a major upgrade to this popular free tool. Version 0.98 features performance improvements including CAPTCHA to check for humans and deter automated robots, usage throttling to limit repeated use over a period of time, and a faster server to improve response times. By popular demand this version features updated HCI thresholds (Congratulations, Caution, Warning) based on research conducted for our new Secrets book and recent web page surveys. The previous thresholds (page size, HTML size, number of objects, etc.) were from 2003 and too restrictive for today's average web page. Version 0.98 also features HTML Tidy and CSS Tidy integration and improved compression detection. Many of the new features were requested by users. Keep those cards and letters coming, we value your feedback.
- US Drops to 19th in Broadband Penetration Worldwide
- US broadband penetration dropped from 17th to 19th place overall among all countries surveyed over the past two quarters. Monaco leads all nations surveyed with 40.6% of the population on broadband and 100% of households. Monaco is the first country to achieve 100% broadband penetration for households.
- New CMS Performance Analysis Services
- In our web performance repertoire we've added two teams to analyze and optimize websites run by content management systems (CMS). Analyzing and optimizing database-driven sites can yield significant performance improvements, by a factor of 10 in some cases. We now offer back-end CMS performance analysis, hybrid (front-end/back-end) performance analysis, and hybrid plus optimization services for CMS-based websites. We can analyze and optimize both Linux and Windows-based platforms, Joomla, Drupal, and other off the shelf CMS or custom applications.
- Upgraded Dedicated Server for WebsiteOptimization.com
- Last but not least, we've upgraded our server and switched hosting providers. We upgraded to a faster server for two reasons, a clean slate for the new Web Page Analyzer module requirements, and improved performance. The new server features dual Xeon processors, a RAID of solid-state disc drives (instead of SCSI-based drives), gobs of memory, and increased throughput. Preliminary tests show that the Web Page Analyzer runs twice as fast when analyzing larger web pages. We're now hosted at Liquid Web, based in Michigan. We'll be doing some additional profiling for a future report.
