When dealing with web applications at least, people don't realize how many non-essential requests are being made peripheral to the action the user actually want

When dealing with web applications at least, people don't realize how many non-essential requests are being made peripheral to the action the user actually wants to accomplish. For instance, install NoScript and make a page fetch to cnn.com. There are 20+ external page requests being made to all kinds of tracking, advertising, and analytical domains which have fuck-all to do with the user's request to see content hosted by cnn.com. The page loads almost instantly when all these non-essential requests are filtered. It's a hilariously bad side effect of the web becoming as commercialized as it is.