Optimizing for speed, phase 1
By Fredrik Anderssonfred. Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:00:51 PM
I've spend the last few days optimizing My Opera for faster loading, using the 14 rules from Steve Souders (Yahoo!) excellent book High Performance Web Sites.
I saw Nate Koechley from Yahoo! present these rules at a Web conference in London a long time ago and I've wanted to implement them since then, but I had not got around to it until earlier this week when Sverre got the book and put it on my desk. 
There's much that can be done to speed up My Opera. We have done a few things already, such as moving all scripts to the bottom of the page, and we aim to do a lot more in the future.
For this My Opera update I've decided to focus on getting fewer HTTP requests and smaller files sizes for the My Opera ui.
If we take a closer look at the images that are used for the My Opera ui today we can see that it's 27 images (depending on what page you look at) with a total file size of 71,3 KB. That's the backgrounds for the main layout, the logo, menu, icons for the top bar, tabs for sub menus, etc (I'm only including the images that are used for the ui, not the ones in the page content).
The challenge with optimizing this is that the ui for the upcoming My Opera release will contain even more icons than before, because of the drop down menus, and we still needed to make it smaller.
So, how do you think it went?
Quite well actually. The result for the new site is 8 images and 21,8 KB! 
There is of course a lot more that can be done, and we will continue working on this.
Stay tuned for more posts on this topic.








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.Kite Geek # Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:08:31 PM
GillyNghecon18 # Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:08:52 PM
Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl # Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:49:27 PM
-( + )-Dasch # Sunday, November 25, 2007 5:55:04 PM
But aren't there more important things to do? Maybe the file upload section. This to use is like using things in the 90th. Same with pictures uploading and the messages section.
Don't beat me please.
.Kite Geek # Sunday, November 25, 2007 6:00:09 PM
-( + )-Dasch # Sunday, November 25, 2007 6:11:12 PM
Remco Lantingremcolanting # Sunday, November 25, 2007 6:15:54 PM
Nicolas Mendozanicomen # Sunday, November 25, 2007 6:35:16 PM
Remco Lantingremcolanting # Sunday, November 25, 2007 6:45:51 PM
lamarca lamarca # Sunday, November 25, 2007 7:40:48 PM
Matt Coxcoxy # Sunday, November 25, 2007 9:25:12 PM
AyushAyushJ # Sunday, November 25, 2007 9:39:41 PM
Uncle MickMickeyjoe-Irl # Sunday, November 25, 2007 9:43:32 PM
Geoff GirardinG-off # Sunday, November 25, 2007 11:07:56 PM
Tamil # Sunday, November 25, 2007 11:41:35 PM
Ice ArdorIceArdor # Monday, November 26, 2007 3:32:31 AM
Vetle Roeimvetler # Monday, November 26, 2007 9:33:48 AM
CharlieBAMAToNE # Monday, November 26, 2007 2:57:37 PM
graste # Monday, November 26, 2007 7:00:26 PM
Fredrik Anderssonfred # Monday, November 26, 2007 7:22:24 PM
Dustin WilsonKhadgar # Wednesday, November 28, 2007 4:08:22 AM
Rey07rey # Wednesday, November 28, 2007 8:43:08 PM
David Storeydstorey # Friday, November 30, 2007 6:14:03 AM
If it works the file size should be way smaller (in latest Opera only
Ryan Octavianusphilry4n # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 1:54:45 AM
Joel Lutherlutherjw # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:39:27 AM
Death the Brain EaterDeathKnight1092 # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 5:29:04 AM
Dennismcd # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 6:00:43 AM
Ruben Garciaeztigma # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 7:15:16 AM
Barebry # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 7:16:21 AM
Redshigen # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:12:37 AM
xD
aos101 # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 11:35:15 AM
Zolizoligrg89 # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 12:10:04 PM
Garygaryg # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 12:30:15 PM
toadbee # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 1:22:36 PM
Miczalinasevillana # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 1:29:50 PM
wakakei # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:33:17 PM
PatttyMetalgirlPattty # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 2:40:29 PM
Tri M. NguyenTriMN # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 3:39:20 PM
KryptoKnightAleksOD # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:27:24 PM
BelaBELADA # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:28:10 PM
NekoNeko42 # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 4:38:39 PM
Nikio # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 7:27:09 PM
MagdalenaSalve! # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 8:03:08 PM
And thanks for your work!
vivalamuerte # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 9:27:24 PM
Efstathios AmanatidisNOBUYUKI # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:14:05 PM
But in my opinion opera is fast enough xD
Merry Christmas
Violeta Rosalesvioletisha # Wednesday, December 12, 2007 10:44:31 PM
/-\ [) /-\ /V\link226 # Thursday, December 13, 2007 3:58:39 AM
merry christmas!
Dr. Flaydr-flay # Thursday, January 10, 2008 3:34:36 AM
I assume you are using all PNGs & no GIFs ?
The PNGout plugin for Irfanview, is rather good (& very uptodate) at optimizing PNGs for tiny file size. worth trying a comparison with you current GFX prog.
Fredrik Anderssonfred # Thursday, January 10, 2008 3:13:18 PM
Dr. Flaydr-flay # Thursday, January 10, 2008 7:10:32 PM
But then on analyzing the wink emoticon above, I stripped the the un-used colours out & saved it as a 5bit (32 colour) transparent PNG, using Irfanviews PNGOUT plugin & removing the extra PNG chunks.
If i understood the plugins options more, I may be able to make it smaller still.
Original - wink.gif = 389 bytes
PNGOUT - wink.png = 315 bytes
You may find if you can save 5 or 6 bit GIFs you can get it smaller than that. Irfanview only seems to write full 8bit GIFs
Sigh! takes me back to the good old Amiga days