If you ask 15 different people what the phrase Web performance means to them, you will get 30 different answers. Like all things in this technological age, the definition is in the eye of the beholder. To the Marketing person, it is delivering content to the correct audience in a manner that converts visitors into customers. To the business leader, it is the ability of a Web site to deliver on a certain revenue goal, while managing costs and creating shareholder/investor value.

For IT audiences, the mere mention of the phrase will spark a debate that would frighten the UN Security Council. Is it the Network? The Web server? The designers? The application? What is making the Web site slow?

So, what is Web performance? It is everything mentioned above, and more. Working in this industry for nine years, I have heard all facets of the debate. And all of the above positions will appear in every organization with a Web site to varying degrees.

In this ongoing series, I will examine various facets of Web performance, from the statistical measures used to truly analyze Web performance data, to the concepts that drive the evolution of a company from “Hey, we really need to know how fast our Web page loads” to “We need to accurately correlate the performance of our site to traffic volumes and revenue generation”.

Defining Web performance is much harder than it seems. It’s simplest metrics are tied into the basic concepts of speed and success rate (availability). These concepts have been around a very long time, and are understood all the way up to the highest levels of any organization.

However, this very simple state is one that very few companies manage to evolve away from. It is the lowest common denominator in Web performance, and only provides a mere scraping of the data that is available within every company.

As a company evolves and matures in its view toward Web performance, the focus shifts away from the basic data, and begins to focus on the more abstract concepts of reliability and consistency. These force organizations to step away from the aggregated and simplistic approach of speed and availability, to a place where the user experience component of performance is factored into the equation.

After tackling consistency and reliability, the final step is toward performance optimization. This is a holistic approach to Web performance, a place where speed and availability data are only one component of an integrated whole. Companies at this strata are usually generating their own performance dashboards with combinations of data sources that correlate disparate data sources in a way that provides a clear and concise view not only of the performance of their Web site, but also of the health of their entire online business.

During this series, I will refer to data and information very frequently. In today’s world, even after nearly a decade of using Web performance tools and services, most firms only rely on data. All that matters is that the measurements arrive.

The smartest companies move to the next level and take that data and turn it into information, ideas that can shape the way that they design their Web site, service their customers, and view themselves against the entire population of Internet businesses.

This series will not be a technical HOWTO on making your site faster. I cover a lot of that ground in another of my Web sites. It will also not be data heavy; again, I point you to another of my Web sites if you want only the numbers.

What this series will do is lead you through the minefield of Web performance ideas, so that when you are asked what you think Web performance is, you can present the person asking the question with a clear, concise answer.

The next article in this series will focus on Web performance measures: why and when you use them, and how to present them to a non-technical audience.

Usually I classify this sort of mail as complete nonsense, and delet it. But this one was such a classic, I had to post it.

The letter is from the new CEO of the joint Borland/Segue. He is announcing that he thinks that Segue and Borland customers will be able to find cool ways to use the products of this new company…at least, after I translate it, it seems like that is what he is TRYING to say.

…

This is a great move for both of our organizations as we come together to tackle what we all know to be a key development challenge and the biggest opportunity for our industry — software quality. Borland and Segue have long shared a common belief that the challenge of software quality reaches far beyond testing and QA. Together we will approach this issue holistically, providing value at each stage of the software delivery lifecycle.

Our focus now is on the development of a comprehensive Lifecycle Quality Management solution — bringing together our unparalleled process improvement expertise with proper skills training and a true end-to-end quality technology offering. Our goal is alignment of people, process and technology, proactively driving higher standards of software quality while systematically reducing costs associated with rework and maintenance.

While continuing to enhance Segue’s quality and application performance technologies, we will also focus on delivering even tighter linkage with Borland’s broad portfolio of Application Lifecycle Management technologies. As part of a complete solution, these technologies will address quality across the entire lifecycle, eliminating quality issues at the root cause.

…

Chaucer and Shakespeare just rose from the dead, and they are looking for the marketing people who wrote this.

Technorati Tags: Fight the bull, nonsense, marketing

For lack of anything intelligent to say right now…

Step Right Up
Tom Waits
from Small Change

Step right up
step right up
step right up
Everyone’s a winner, bargains galore
That’s right, you too can be the proud owner
Of the quality goes in before the name goes on
One-tenth of a dollar
one-tenth of a dollar
we got service after sales
You need perfume? we got perfume
how ’bout an engagement ring?
Something for the little lady
something for the little lady
Something for the little lady, hmm
Three for a dollar
We got a year-end clearance, we got a white sale
And a smoke-damaged furniture
you can drive it away today
Act now, act now
and receive as our gift, our gift to you
They come in all colors, one size fits all
No muss, no fuss, no spills
you’re tired of kitchen drudgery
Everything must go
going out of business
going out of business
Going out of business sale
Fifty percent off original retail price
skip the middle man
Don’t settle for less
How do we do it?
how do we do it?
volume, volume, turn up the volume
Now you’ve heard it advertised, don’t hesitate
Don’t be caught with your drawers down
Don’t be caught with your drawers down
You can step right up, step right up

That’s right, it filets, it chops
It dices, slices, never stops
lasts a lifetime, mows your lawn
And it mows your lawn
and it picks up the kids from school
It gets rid of unwanted facial hair
it gets rid of embarrassing age spots
It delivers a pizza
and it lengthens, and it strengthens
And it finds that slipper that’s been at large
under the chaise longe for several weeks
And it plays a mean Rhythm Master
It makes excuses for unwanted lipstick on your collar
And it’s only a dollar, step right up
it’s only a dollar, step right up

‘Cause it forges your signature.
If not completely satisfied
mail back unused portion of product
For complete refund of price of purchase
Step right up
Please allow thirty days for delivery
don’t be fooled by cheap imitations
You can live in it, live in it
laugh in it, love in it
Swim in it, sleep in it
Live in it, swim in it
laugh in it, love in it
Removes embarrassing stains from contour sheets
that’s right
And it entertains visiting relatives
it turns a sandwich into a banquet
Tired of being the life of the party?
Change your shorts
change your life
change your life
Change into a nine-year-old Hindu boy
get rid of your wife
And it walks your dog, and it doubles on sax
Doubles on sax, you can jump back Jack
see you later alligator
See you later alligator
And it steals your car
It gets rid of your gambling debts, it quits smoking
It’s a friend, and it’s a companion
And it’s the only product you will ever need
Follow these easy assembly instructions
it never needs ironing
Well it takes weights off hips, bust
thighs, chin, midriff
Gives you dandruff, and it finds you a job
it is a job
And it strips the phone company free
take ten for five exchange
And it gives you denture breath
And you know it’s a friend, and it’s a companion
And it gets rid of your traveler’s checks
It’s new, it’s improved, it’s old-fashioned
Well it takes care of business
never needs winding
Never needs winding
never needs winding
Gets rid of blackheads, the heartbreak of psoriasis
Christ, you don’t know the meaning of heartbreak, buddy
C’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon
‘Cause it’s effective, it’s defective
it creates household odors
It disinfects, it sanitizes for your protection
It gives you an erection
it wins the election
Why put up with painful corns any longer?
It’s a redeemable coupon, no obligation
no salesman will visit your home
We got a jackpot, jackpot, jackpot
prizes, prizes, prizes, all work guaranteed
How do we do it
how do we do it
how do we do it
how do we do it
We need your business
we’re going out of business
We’ll give you the business
Get on the business
end of our going-out-of-business sale
Receive our free brochure, free brochure
Read the easy-to-follow assembly instructions
batteries not included
Send before midnight tomorrow, terms available
Step right up
step right up
step right up
You got it buddy: the large print giveth
and the small print taketh away
Step right up
you can step right up
you can step right up
C’mon step right up
(Get away from me kid, you bother me…)
Step right up, step right up, step right up
c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon, c’mon
Step right up
you can step right up
c’mon and step right up
C’mon and step right up

Today, by special delivery, I got notice that FIOS is available at my house.

I called Comcast and asked how they were going to match this offer. They offered me $29.95/mo. for 6 months.

Now, because of my unique situation (i.e., requiring a semi-permamnent IP address to allow people to access my servers), I may be stuck with Comcast, because Verizon uses the much smarter random release on DHCP addresses.

But for 97% of the Web-surfing public, FIOS will be the cat’s meow. And that the the flow of customers from Comcast will become a flood. A cable company that continues to think like a cable company in this new world will look like Bethlehem Steel in 3 years…or less.

I have a good friend who is a senior network engineer at Comcast; I hope he is looking for a new job.

Technorati: Comcast, FIOS

IceRocket: Comcast, FIOS

Ok, congrats to Dave Sifry and teh Technorati team. So far today, things look good.

But they are still using broken HTTP to deliver the pages.

HTTP/1.0 200 OK
Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2005 14:24:16 GMT
Server: Apache
Cache-Control: no-store, no-cache, must-revalidate, post-check=0, pre-check=0
X-Powered-By: PHP/4.3.11
Set-Cookie: BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!
Set-Cookie: BLAH! BLAH! BLAH!
Pragma: no-cache
Content-Type: text/html; charset=UTF-8
Connection: close

Throwing hardware at a problem solves the short-term issues; solving the long-term issues means optimizing the delivery of content.

Technorati: web performance, HTTP, Technorati

IceRocket: web performance, HTTP, Technorati

No, this is not a shameless attempt to drive me to the top of the rankings. It is a legitimate comment on a quiet little secret of the new Google Video Search.

Google co-founder Larry Page has announced that the company wants the public to send in its homemade videos – and he doesn’tÂ’t mind how naughty they are.

“There might be an adult section, or something like that. I don’t think that is going to be a big issue,” Page told attendees at the National Cable and Telecommunications Show in San Francisco on Monday, where he was speaking on a panel.

Ouch! John Cheesman points out the HR nightmare that this will pose.

Then again, Google is just admitting what no other respectable online firm will: Internet porn is a huge untapped market for services.

Porn has been the innovator in the internet. It was the Commercial Internet for a long time. But none of the Web services firms are willing to approach or admit that they have major online adult entertainment companies as clients.

As a Web measurement geek, I have always seen this niche as a gold mine. Adult entertainment sites live or die on Web performance. Developers for adult sites are able to push the limits and demand more from their applications. They want to know where and how people connect to their site. They need to optimize their code and image/streaming delivery like few other sites do.

It’s time to get off the ivory tower and accept that adult entertainment could drive the online services revenue opportunity for a long time to come.

Travis Smith points out that Google, out of the goodness of it’s heart while trying to raise awareness for World Water Day, accidentally crushed the Web site of the group organizing this event, worldwaterday.org. [here]

Travis poses the excellent question about asking your Web provider how they will handle a huge spike in traffic. Can you throttle bandwidth? Does it make sense to recruit a content-delivery network to help distribute the load?

The other question I have is: Did Google tell/ask the World Water Day group about putting their site on one of the busiest pages of the entire Internet?

Nothing like being ambushed by well-meaning folks.

The UNESCO site for World Water Day is still up, if you would like more information. [here]

As the Web moves toward the delivery of services, I have been ruminating on the continuing importance of browsers.

Scoble writes:

Oh, well, back to my RSS news aggregator. That’s where I spend 90% of my Internet time now anyway. Are you still using a Web browser? Good. I’ve been telling audiences that those of you still using Web browsers are wasting your time. I think that Opera might be more concerned by that.

I agree. I use Firefox to handle large applications, such as my employers interface, and my blog editor, but beyond that, it has become less and less important in my everyday online life.

This is the trend. HTTP and HTTPS will be the vehicles to deliver this data. Web servers will become more and more important, but as transformation and application servers for back-end data, not as presentation and image servers.

This is a long-term trend. But it also explains things like the decline of Slashdot. Although they have had an RSS feed for a long time, their bleeding-edge readers found that Slashdot was no longer bleeding-edge. Information is flowing faster and in a more personalized manner through aggregator, desktop and online.

I agree with Scoble (something that happens infrequently): the browser war may be irrelevant. The Web Application era has begun.

This comment on the British DIY giant B&Q’s sponsorship of Ellen MacArthur’s solo round-the-world sail cracked me up.

Ouch.