4 ms·

> I feel like over the course of 20 years, accessing a website has always felt equally slow/fast. That's kinda weird, since it's not all high-res images and wha

> I feel like over the course of 20 years, accessing a website has always felt equally slow/fast. That's kinda weird, since it's not all high-res images and whatnot You could say this about any kind of modern software. Our laptops, OSs, etc are all way "better" but aren't instant in loading stuff yet. > I wonder what would happen if a few bigger websites would decide to design their frontpage in a way it loads in an instant on (nearly) every user's browser out there. So people get some contrast against sites that don't. Like, making no-split-second-lag a "feature". I wonder if it could catch on. Would be an interesting experiment for sure. Unless it's a progressively rendered, offline-first web app that looks the exact same as before, cynicism and working experience tells me most users would hate it (unless it's a site for programmers!). Plenty of consumers prefer and like the big fancy JS sites even if they take >1 sec to load in their LTE connections. That said, you can make a nice looking site with cool effects and a JS framework and have it work and load fast (we're doing this now at work!). It just takes discipline, knowledge, and team coordination that most programmers don't have because our industry doesn't expect them to (not enough consumers complaining it's slow).

userbinator 10y ago
not enough consumers complaining it's slow Alternatively, not enough consumers knowing that it could be faster. Most people have absolutely no idea about processor speeds or data sizes. When I pointed out to a friend that a 10MB "flashlight" app whose sole purpose is to display a solid colour on the Android's screen was ridiculously large, she did not understand at all. Even showing her some 4 kilobyte demoscene intros which did far more, didn't have much of an effect.
tim333 10y ago
I think websites, laptops etc. remaining approximately as slow is down to human nature rather than the tech. A delay of 1 or 2 seconds doesn't make much difference with something that'll take you a minute to read. That said in the early days like 1997 with dial up I remember pages taking 30 s to 1 min to load and finding something taking like 20 clicks pre Google. Now that was slow. I'd go get a cup of tea or read a book while waiting. I just timed two of my most frequent sites HN takes like 2s, the nyt like 4s. That doesn't really make a significant difference to the experience.

userbinator 10y ago

not enough consumers complaining it's slow Alternatively, not enough consumers knowing that it could be faster. Most people have absolutely no idea about processor speeds or data sizes. When I pointed out to a friend that a 10MB "flashlight" app whose sole purpose is to display a solid colour on the Android's screen was ridiculously large, she did not understand at all. Even showing her some 4 kilobyte demoscene intros which did far more, didn't have much of an effect.

tim333 10y ago

I think websites, laptops etc. remaining approximately as slow is down to human nature rather than the tech. A delay of 1 or 2 seconds doesn't make much difference with something that'll take you a minute to read. That said in the early days like 1997 with dial up I remember pages taking 30 s to 1 min to load and finding something taking like 20 clicks pre Google. Now that was slow. I'd go get a cup of tea or read a book while waiting. I just timed two of my most frequent sites HN takes like 2s, the nyt like 4s. That doesn't really make a significant difference to the experience.