High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers
by Steve Souders
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Book Summary Information
Author: Steve SoudersEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2007-09-11
ISBN: 0596529309
Number of pages: 168
Publisher: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
Book Reviews of High Performance Web Sites: Essential Knowledge for Front-End Engineers
Book Review: Set to become a Classic
Summary: 4 Stars
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.
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