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Reduce Site Download Size By Gzipping
Monday, July 13th, 2009
I have recently had the misfortune of optimising a site and having to gzip components coming off a server to optimise the file size. I say misfortune, not because this is a bad thing to do, in fact it is very worthwhile, but the problem has been that web hosts generally are not good at telling you how to set up for gzipping on their particular configuraton.
As mentioned gzip reduces the file size so it is good for the user of a site and the internet as a whole, but I have realised that what it is not good for is web hosts. That is no doubt the reason why they are not that helpful when you ask about how to set up on their servers. The problem they have is: -
- They are often paid per MB transferred (as per your plan). which mean gzipping reduces the chance that you will go up a pricing level.
- If you gzip, their servers will have to do more work zipping the files. Therefore in terms of power it will cost them more
On the other hand of coarse they will be sending out less bandwidth, but that is relatively cheap (for them at least).
It strikes me that we have a problem here similar to that of the power utilities. They want to you to use more power, but on the other hand it is better for everyone if we use less.
Thankfully there is a simple solution for web hosts. Charge us based on uploads of the uncompressed versions of our documents, and maybe even make a small additional charge for the gzip service to cover extra power requirements. This way everyone wins the site user as things load up quickly, the developer as the hassle is taken out of gzip, the internet as bandwidth is reduced, and the host as they can charge us for the additional service.
Let me know what you think!
Tags: bandwidth, gzip, host, hosting
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