I remember thinking some time ago, web pages are mostly text -- at least the HTML is pure text. When the developers of web technologies were thinking about the technology, why didn't they include a way that web pages could use standard compression technology? Text files compress really well -- usually to 20 or 30 percent of their original size. It was quite the rage about 10 years ago with hard disks before hard disks had the huge capacities they do now. Most of my customers send their debugging information to me as compressed attachments. Why weren't web pages compressed?
Further research found that the technology is in place now for using standard compression techniques with web pages. Most web browsers written since 1999 have the capability of handling compressed content in a user transparent way. It's just a matter of web servers recognizing the capability and using it. I've installed the compression engine onto my web server and will be configuring it soon.
If you've read this far and wonder why I care, it's this. The vast majority of web surfers are using dialup phone modems. Simply by compressing the web page, the dialup user "feels" like he's viewing the page with an expensive ISDN internet connection. To load this page requires sending about 40Kbytes. The compressed version would be about 15Kbytes. Some of the compression built into modems would mask the 70% savings, but it should help substantially.
Interested in reading more? Article I found include: "HTTP Compression Speeds up the Web", "performance: HTTP Compression", "An HTTP Compression Whyto". I also found a service that let's you test a page and see what the compressed result would otherwise be.
Sorry for the geeky diatribe. It's something that's bugged me in the back of my head for some time and now I got some resolution on it. I'll see if I can make it work soon and get back to the usual writeups of family news, current events, and pictures....