Google Web Accelerator
By John DeNardo |
Thursday, May 5th, 2005 at
11:19 am
New Google Tool: Google Web Accelerator, described as:
An application that uses the power of Google’s global computer network to make web pages load faster. Google Web Accelerator is easy to use; all you have to do is download and install it, and from then on many web pages will automatically load faster than before.
How, you ask?
[using] various strategies to make your web pages load faster, including:
- Sending your page requests through Google machines dedicated to handling Google Web Accelerator traffic.
- Storing copies of frequently looked at pages to make them quickly accessible.
- Downloading only the updates if a web page has changed slightly since you last viewed it.
- Prefetching certain pages onto your computer in advance.
- Managing your Internet connection to reduce delays.
- Compressing data before sending it to your computer.
The “prefetching certain pages onto your computer in advance” part worries me. My machine is slow enough without prefetching, thanks. If someone else tries this, let me know how it works and if you see a significantly noticeable difference.
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Filed under: Computers
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I’m testing it out. The first few pages took longer than normal, but after that, there was a noticeable difference with page loading. It’s not a “significantly noticeable difference,” but it is faster.
And if you’re worried about the prefetching, there is an option in the preferences to turn that off.
If you have dailup you’ll see more of a benefit than if you have broadband, but the basic concepts are sound.
I have also installed this on a machine at home, and I have not seen much benefit so far. But I will keep running and see how it goes.
FYI, some people are experiencing trouble with it.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1738&e=1&u=/zd/20050506/tc_zd/151477