It’s great to see Andy King has announced an update to his excellent, free page analysis tool at WebsiteOptimization.com.
For anyone who hasn’t stumbled across it before, this is an online tool that takes a URL from you, and returns a nicely formatted report on the over-all efficiency of the page you gave it.
I’ve found it can come in quite handy with client work, particularly if their current site uses a chunky, older table-based structure. All you have to do is remember to generate a report on the current site before you start, and then another on your new construction.
While they know anyone can give lip service to ‘more efficiency’ and ‘faster downloads’ and ‘reduced bandwidth’, two reports detailing the clear improvements in fairly plain english usually help to leave a client feeling good about themselves. I tweaked my own, local, customized print stylesheet, designed specifically for client presentation. That might make a good GreaseMonkey script in future.
The new service adds:
- support for Frames
- support for iFrames
- support for CSS based images
- more realistic CSS and JS size thresholds
Of course, if you have the Web Developer Toolbar, you may already be quite familiar with the service, though I admit it’s easy to overlook it amongst the other riches.
Simply go to ‘Tools/View Speed Report’ and you have yourself a report. Voila!
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March 29th, 2005 at 1:24 am
An excellent tool! It saves a lot of time, too.
Thanks for leting us know about the update :)
March 29th, 2005 at 1:35 am
I have been using that tool from the Firefox web developer toolkit for a couple of months now.
I agree wholeheartedly with you about the benefits of using this tool whilst doing site redesigns. (I wonder how long it’ll be free?)
March 29th, 2005 at 8:57 am
“though I admit it’s easy to overlook it amongst the other riches.”
Exactly my case. Couldn’t live without the Web Developer Toolbar, and now you’ve pointed out what i’ve overlooked in it :-)
Thanks!
March 29th, 2005 at 10:56 am
That toolbar just changed my life…what a great tool!
March 29th, 2005 at 11:13 am
Used it a few times from the web developer tool bar but thought I’d give it a try again today based on your recommendation.
Unfortunately the first site I hit with it shows a big flaw in the system. It counts all CSS included images listed in the style sheet even if they’re not used on the current page.
Since i use CSS for all my layouts and prefer to only have one style sheet per domain (for optimal caching) - that bug eliminates the effectiveness of this tool for me.
March 29th, 2005 at 4:04 pm
wow… I had no idea it was there either.
March 29th, 2005 at 8:29 pm
So your saying that although the style sheet might contain a rule that uses a graphic, if the rule isn’t called by the page, that graphic shouldn’t be counted. That’s an interesting point, Ealameda.
It would put more strain on Andy’s server to do it, but it would be quite possible to do. Something for them to consider.
March 30th, 2005 at 10:16 am
I’ve been using the Webdeveloper plugin for firefox by Chris Pederick for quite some time now and i must say, the tool is something i’ve never know to exist but gosh, do i wish i had found out about it a little earlier!
The speedreport is something i’ve only used a couple of times but now am considering of running it too before and after redesign. Gives the client some figures to look at which is always nice!
April 28th, 2005 at 2:34 am
I love the FireFox toolbar.
It’s such a handy tool to have.
April 30th, 2005 at 11:43 am
Very, very useful tool, Great stuff!
September 5th, 2006 at 5:22 am
Wonderful+and+informativ