What's With Google's Need for Speed?

Google would like you to know that you are slowing down its plans to organize the world’s information. In fact, your lame web site is slowing down the internet in general.

OK, so maybe not your web site, but enough web sites are still relying on old technology and practices, that Google wants to put an end to it. Accordingly, Google (GOOG) has launched a new resource with best practices for speeding up your web site.

Some of the recommendations might need your web developer, but most of the advice should be easy enough to implement. If you’re not convinced, Google has developed a brainwashing educational video to help explain the benefits of us all speeding up our sites.

OK, now it’s time for the cynic in me to be unleashed. Is Google seeing that its indexing technology is unable to scale? Why is Google concerned about the need for speed? Sure, web sites have gotten bloated, but aren’t broadband speeds getting faster? Surely on the user-side, we have enough speed in our download pipe to handle even the bulkiest of web sites? If that’s the case, does this mean that the real issue is Google’s ability to scale its spidering to match?

What happens if we don’t comply with Google’s plea? Will it grind to a halt by the year 2020?

Comments

[Chris S:]

Somehow, I highly doubt the scalability of GoogleBot is tied to the speed of individual websites. Call me dubious.

Jun 25 10:45 AM

[bigmoney:]

I once had a website that would mysteriously stop. The service provider said it was consuming too much CPU. Turns out, the blog filled with spam. And then late at night, google would try to index the blog and burn too many resources. The service provider would then shut down my website.

Jun 26 01:25 AM

[LarryBlumen:]

I'm skeptical, too, of your conclusion. Speeding up web sites won't affect Google's indexing. It speeds up user responses. More clicks - more money.

Jun 29 09:04 AM