Page loading speed has become more of a critical issue recently, and even Google has included it as a factor when determining page rank for websites. This week Google added a Site Performance Tool to its Webmaster Tools to help web developers get their sites up to speed.
Google’s Site Performance Tool is a tracking and stats tool that is executed as a Firefox add-on. It can be accessed via the Google Labs menu in Google Webmaster Tools. Developers will need to be using Firefox along with the Firebug add-on in order to use the new tool.
The Performance Tool includes a list of potential things that could slow down the loading of your website. It checks to see if you’re using image compression and if you are minifying JavaScript and CSS, and provides links to minified and compressed versions of the files from your own site.
