Dec
28
- Chris Braund
- 28/Dec/2011 10:37
Over the festive period it's all too easy for some of us to gain some weight and get a little bigger, but it seems webpages are heading the same way as the average file size of a webpage is steadily getting larger. According to a study on the top sites by the HTTP Archive the average size of a webpage is now 965 kilobytes, a growth of around 33% from last year's figure of 726 kilobytes.
The HTTP Archive ran monthly tests on the top 1000 websites and noticed that the file size gradually increased through the year before sharply jumping up in October. There are a few things which could have caused the growth in file size such as increased user interactivity, more widespread adoption of analytical tracking software or the use of higher resolution images.
The HTTP Archive's statistics revealed that the use of Javascript has seen the biggest growth; this scripting language makes pages more interactive and responsive. In an effort to combat the growth of page file sizes VSI-thinking has put Javascript on a diet, minifying the file size by removing spaces and unnecessary characters in the code. This ensures the webpage loads quickly without having to sacrifice any features.
Maintaining a small file size is important, larger pages take longer to load which can annoy users and result in them visiting other sites. A small file size will also become more essential as the use of mobile web devices continues to grow. Fortunately our websites load quickly and work perfectly even on mobile browsers. Why not see for yourself...