Google Widget Main Culprit In Slow Load Time

By Todd on December 10, 2009

According to the new site performance tab in Google Webmasters Tools, my blog here at tmtips.com loads slower than 92% of the sites on the Internet.

Obviously, there are a few things that I can fix, such as compressing the css, and optimizing some of my images.

With rumors that google may be incorporating page load time in to their search rank algorithm, it's kind of ironic that by far the worst culprit in slowing my site down was that Google Friend Connect widget.

So, I took it down ... for now.

Hopefully the people who" run the internet" can, at some point, figure out how to serve up a widget that doesn't take 5-6 seconds to load.

Todd

Posted in Blogging | Tagged friend connect, Google, load time, widgets

5 responses to “Google Widget Main Culprit In Slow Load Time”

Marketing Ideas
December 10, 2009 at 11:38 am | Permalink | Reply

Irony huh? That is funny how they make/brake their own rules.
Marketing Ideas´s last blog ..Increase Your Marketing ROI by Building a Community
1. Todd
  December 10, 2009 at 4:49 pm | Permalink | Reply
  
  I don’t know why I even both with 3rd party widgets to begin with. About the only one I won’t give up, is my flickr pictures down in the footer … although, to be honest, I’m not real sure that anybody me even looks at that one on a regular basis.
Lin
December 10, 2009 at 12:33 pm | Permalink | Reply

Hi Todd,

I just removed the Google Friend Connect widget off my sidebar too. I don’t know if it was slowing down the load time on my blog, but I was noticing some strange error type messages on Woopra and when I asked RT about the odd looking code, he said it was Google Friend Connect. No big deal – one less thing on the sidebar I don’t need.
Lin ´s last blog ..Zhu Zhu Pets Toxic? Zhu Zhu Pets Investigation by CPSC for Antimony
1. Todd
  December 10, 2009 at 4:52 pm | Permalink | Reply
  
  Hi Lin,
  
  I would have loved to have let Google help me connect with my friends … but if it keeps the blog from even loading in a timely manner, it kind of defeats the whole point.
  
  lol, as for sidebars, I have a hard time even coming up with stuff to put in mine.
  1. Lin
    December 10, 2009 at 4:57 pm | Permalink | Reply
    
    Ha. Right when I think I’m going to change up what’s on my sidebar (ad-wise) and move things around, I suddenly get a barrage of clicks and purchases and decide to wait a little longer. I’m constantly testing different things out, to see what works well and what doesn’t.
    Lin´s last blog ..Zhu Zhu Pets Toxic? Zhu Zhu Pets Investigation by CPSC for Antimony