Thursday, November 19, 2009

@Font-Face and Page Rendering Performance

I found an interesting article discussing the use of @font-face. Some key points are

IE doesn’t render anything in the page until the font file is done downloading if there is a SCRIPT tag above the @font-face declaration.
Although font files don’t block other downloads, they do trigger the browser’s busy indicators. This has a negative effect on the user’s perception of page speed because it gives the impression that the page takes a long time to load.
IE is a little jumpy when it comes to downloading fonts. IE starts downloading the font file as soon as it encounters the @font-face declaration. This means IE downloads the font file even if no elements in the page use the font.

The author has a good solution: put the font-file at the end of page.

I recommend deferring the font file download until after the page has rendered, as shown in the Lazy Load Test. This solves the issues in IE – the page renders and then the font is downloaded in the background and enhances the stylized text once it arrives. This technique has benefits in other browsers, as well. By lazy loading the font file, most of the browser busy indicators aren’t triggered.

Too many designers forget that page rendering is still a primary concern. Viewers are willing to wait for a page to render but their patience is limited. Delaying page rendering for 6 seconds in order to deliver custom fonts is not acceptable.

Wednesday, November 18, 2009

Net Neutrality - Still Wondering How It All Works Out

Last month the FCC announced the rules for "enforcing" net neutrality. As broad statements of intent they're fine - but the devil is in the details. The question is "how will these intentions be codified and enforced."

Chapter 5 of the FCC ruling displays both the intent and the problem.

This Commission has a statutory responsibility to preserve and promote advanced communications networks that are accessible to all Americans and that serve national purposes. Fouryears ago, the Commission sought to safeguard and promote the open Internet by announcing four general
Internet policy principles that would guide its interpretation of the Communications Act of 1934, as amended (the Act):

· To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice.

· To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to run applications and use services of their choice, subject to the needs of law enforcement.

· To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to connect their choice of legal devices that do not harm the network.

· To encourage broadband deployment and preserve and promote the open and interconnected nature of the public Internet, consumers are entitled to competition among network providers, application and service providers, and content providers.

The Commission noted that all the principles “are subject to reasonable network management.”

fcc-09-93a1.pdf

So what does "reasonable network management" mean? We know it means that company A's content does not get placed before company B. But does real-time communication get put in front of email? We're still not hearing any details from the media. And what about point one in which "consumers are entitled to access the lawful Internet content of their choice." That's straight forward in one sense but how does this apply to ISPs? The role of an ISP is to transmit data from one computer to another, not to determine whether that data is legal, or copyrighted or anything else along this line.

Saturday, November 14, 2009

Google Does Not Use Keyword Meta Tags

Nothing is easier to convince a client that Google does not use the keyword meta tag in its ranking than hearing it straight from the source.



Q: Does Google ever use the "keywords" meta tag in its web search ranking?
A: In a word, no. ... Our web search ... disregards keyword metatags completely. They simply don't have any effect in our search ranking at present

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

The EU privacy initiative - ban cookies

EU has passed a law that will go into affect in 18 months that would require websites to get explicit consent from the user before using cookies - with the one provision, if the cookie was "strickly necessary" as in a shopping cart.

This decision will have some interesting ramifications that the lawmakers were not aware of. It will make it much more difficult for websites in Europe to conduct business. How will a business be able to track usage, to judge advertising campaigns without the use of cookies?

This coming from the very same people who are increase public surveillence. France passed a law recently requiring video surveillence cameras. IP video will become the defacto standard and those with old fashioned analog systems will have to upgrade.

Europe Approves New Cookie Law.
Consent will be required for cookies in Europe

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

IE6 Countdown

Microsoft has a website, IE6 Countdown, dedicated to getting IE6 to drop below 1% of world-wide browser usage. Unfortunately that won't happen until Windows 2000 servers are replaced and corporate and government agencies decide to upgrade.

Still it's an interesting site showing a map of the world and displaying the usage (if known) in each country.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Check your WebSite

Usability is a central aspect of a good website. Too many clients still do not realize that their corporate website looks different on different platforms and browsers.

To that end I recommend that site owners go to the following two sites to examine their site: