As a Web performance consultant, I view the release of Google Chrome with slightly different eyes than many. And one of the items that I look for is how the browser will affect performance, especially perceived performance on the end-user desktop.

One thing I have been able to determine is that the use of WebKit will effectively rule out (to the best of my knowledge) the availability of HTTP Pipelining in the browser.

HTTP Pipelining is the ability, defined in RFC 2616, to request multiple HTTP objects simultaneously across an open TCP connection, and then handle their downloads using the features built into the HTTP/1.1 specifications.

I had an Apple employee in a class I taught a few months back confirm that Safari (which is built on WebKit) cannot use HTTP Pipeling for reason that are known only to the OS and TCP stack developers at Apple.

Now, if the team at Google has found a way to circumvent this problem, I will be impressed.

Tags: Apple, Chrome, Google, Google Chrome, HTTP pipelining, pipelining, Safari, WebKit

I am writing up a client presentation for next week, and I just realized just how flawed Internet Explorer is. Microsoft claims that the browser is standards compliant. Yet it still doesn’t support HTTP pipelining.

And the frustrating part? They won’t tell us why. I have my suspicions, which include TCP stack issues and a flawed HTTP handling mechanism that is still based on Windows 95 architecture, but an explanation from Redmond would be nice.

Every (and I mean every) other browser can do this.

Microsoft, it’s time you detached your Web browser from your OS, like you’ve forced everyone else to do.

Tags: HTTP, pipelining, RFC 2616, Firefox, Opera, HTTP Pipelining, Internet Explorer

Tags: browser, client, cro, Firefox, HTTP, HTTP pipelining, IE, IM, Internet, Internet Explorer, IP, Issues, it, LAN, Microsoft, Om, One, pipelining, pr, TCP, Technorati, web, Web browser, window, Windows

Port80 Software in San Diego is a team who is dedicated to improving Web performance.

However, they just recommended Maxthon, which uses the MSIE engine. [here]

I can’t buy into that. It still uses a core browser which has been patched but has not evolved since 1999. Until Microsoft releases a browser that can handle HTTP Pipelining — don’t understand why it can’t do it…unless there is a technical reason — I will stick with Firefox.

Tags: ASP, browser, cro, Firefox, HTTP, HTTP pipelining, IE, IM, IP, it, Microsoft, MSIE, Om, opinion, performance, pipelining, pr, web, Web Performance

I am extremely steamed at an article that just read on Caillon’s Blog which basically encourages people to disable HTTP Pipelining.

This is the wrong approach.

If a server announces that it is HTTP/1.1 compliant, then  it should be able to handle a browser that is using all of the HTTP/1.1 features. If someone is using a server version which cannot handle all of the features of HTTP/1.1, then they should be forced to fall back to HTTP/1.0.

By continuing to bow to the lowest common denominator, Web performance will not improve and Server developers will not be forced to accept that they must fix their code.

The only reason that server developers have gotten away with lousy pipelining support is because MSIE still does not support it. If MSIE begins to implement pipelining, then watch the mad scramble to resolve this issue.

Proactive Web performance excellence. Do it.

Tags: app, blog, browser, EAD, HTML, HTTP, HTTP pipelining, IE, IM, IP, it, MSIE, Om, One, performance, pipelining, pr, server, web, Web Performance