Page Speed Online is a web-based version of the Page Speed plugin, that allows developers to analyze web pages without the need of downloading an extension. Page Speed Online also features a mobile page analysis, which lets developers analyze their mobile sites like they are viewed in a mobile browser, with mobile-specific optimization recommendations. This article shows the new free service in action.
How Page Speed Online Works
Page Speed Online works similarly to the Page Speed browser extension. Page Speed Online checks web pages against various performance best practices, including CSS and JavaScript positioning, cache policies, GZIP compression, and eTag usage. Figure 1 shows Page Speed Online results for CNN.com
Figure 1: Page Speed Results for CNN.com
Clicking on one of the recommendations brings up a detailed screen with recommendations (see Figure 2):
Figure 2: Page Speed Leverage Browser Caching for CNN.com
Page Speed Mobile Performance Analysis
The online version of Page Speed also includes a mobile performance analysis that simulates viewing a mobile site in a mobile browser (page speed automatically follows mobile redirects, acting as a mobile browser). Figure 3 shows the mobile results.
Figure 3: Page Speed Mobile Results for CNN.com
Conclusion
Page Speed online is the web-based version of the Page Speed extension. The online version provides a list of expandable recommentations based on web performance best practices. Unlike the Page Speed
extension, the online
version does not provide a one page report, this would
be a welcome addition to future versions.
Further Reading
- mod_pagespeed
- This Apache module automates many of the recommendations in the Page Speed performance plugin.
- Page Speed home page
- Google’s gateway to the page speed family of services and software.