High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers [Kindle Edition]

For once, it's nice to have an dev book not full of useless screenshots and blatitudes going beyond 500 pages. This little gem is a delightful stroll through a field I see ignored in most projects too often.

While the authors does not say everthing there is to say about web site optimization, the advice here will be more than enough to out do competitors, to set you a level or two above fellow developers and to show some light on issues that you will probably never find out for yourself unless you do a lot of testing, which you never have time to do, considering the strict deadlines imposed on most projects. Fortunately, Steve Souders has already done this for us.

I love the concept of just doing 14 chapters, each for a given solution, explanining it concisely, giving real world metrics and sticking to the point. Good also that he shows how he did the tests and how he analysis top web sites.

To sum it up, I think this should be a must not only for the front-end engineers, as the book suggests, but also for any developer having to do with the web (asp.net, php, whatever) and architects, project leads, whatever. The book is short and plain, so you have no excuse. It will benefit you no matter what.

Wow. What a great book.

I took this book, because it is very short, just 168 pages. I asked myself, what this guy can say in just 168 pages about performance? Maybe some introduction to the topic? First two chapters just confirmed my assumptions. There is nothing new, just some general information that I already knew.

How big was my surprise when I finished chapter 3 - first rule (out of 14). Author was able to explain what is the problem with too many http requests and how to make fewer requests. Even I am not a performance guru (just a developer) it was clear enough how should I build my web pages in the future. Even more, he gave me a felling that I should change my current pages.

Next couple chapters are even better, especially description how important is to put css and js imports in the correct place on web page, and how big impact they might have when they are in wrong place. The chapters about Expiry headers and ETags are also awesome. Author describes how cache in web browser works, what are conditional gets and how to make a proxy more efficient.

I finished a book with a feeling that I can easily change my pages to work much faster than they are today. And you know what - I will not spend much time for that one.

I recommend this book for everybody who writes web pages even for personal use. You will be surprised how big amount of knowledge you can get from 168 pages.

The book I reviewed is called High Performance websites ( Essential Knowledge for Frontend Engineers ). It is written by Steve Souders who is Chief Performance at Yahoo. The book explains common causes of pages taking a long time to display then offers 14 performance rules for front end engineers to consider implementing .

I am reviewing this book having been involved in front-end development since 1998 and worked on some of the most visited sites in the UK.

I was sceptical when I heard about this book. I feared it would be a rehash of hoary old advice such as optimise images by using jpegs for photographs, however the high quality of the O'Reilly library persuaded me that Mr Souders might have something more to offer.

When the book arrived on my desk I was pleasantly surprised by its size. It is only 145 pages long. Considerably shorter then my credit card statements and a much more enjoyable read.

The first two chapters are introductory. The first chapter ( 5 pages) explains the importance of front end development. This is useful because it concisely presents the technical case for investing time and resources in optimising the front end layer of a website.

The second chapter explains what happens to a server when a html page loads and where the major delays are. I enjoyed reading it. It bought to together bits of information I'd picked up from a disparate range of sources. It was nice to see them together and in context. The restricted focus on the effects of code on performance (and not databases meant) that I could extract useful information quickly.

The remaining 14 chapters each described one point in a 14 point plan to increase the speed of a website. Obviously this plan is available on-line. There are two advantages to buying the book. The first is that you will obtain supporting information such as graphs and useful code samples. The second is that the in-depth explanations will demonstrate to you why each particular point is a good idea. In a commercial environment this will enable you to better argue your corner when competing with conflicting interests within the organisation.

Rather then replace the content of the book, the online content supports it and makes it easier to produce a useful end product. The YSlow tool is available via the Yahoo developer network. I recommend every developer download this.

In an ideal world the online advertising managers and Emedia studios would read this book and it would influence the creation and display of online media content. In my opinion and according to the research I've done using YSlow, this is the main thing slowing them down.

Summary

In summary this book deserved to be an addition to every professional web developers library.

The advice contained within can be used immediately to make low cost and effective changes to benefit the visitor experience on your site.

However its benefits won't be fully realised until its finding are understood and accepted by the ecommerce marketing audience.