The 49KB Webpage

In The 49MB Webpage, Shubham Bose describes how the New York Times website downloads 49MB of data across 422 (!) network requests. For one page! This is crazy to an old timer like me, but it’s the norm for most. We don’t have to live like this!

John Gruber has done a much better job than I ever could in his write up about why this is so, and why it’s so bad for the survival of the web. Be sure to read it.

I’ve been in this game since the web was hatched and while there’s a lot of nostalgia at play, I admit, I really believe we need to bring all these good bits of ye olde web back. People maintaining simple sites, writing for the joy, to share and teach, rather than writing as bait for traffic, engagement and clicks.  

Pagecord is my way of helping to push us back towards that philosophy. Simple sites that load fast, where a 49KB webpage is on the large side. Sites where people are writing for the joy, without ads, with little clickbait. A platform that’s open source, self-hostable, where you own the content (and, soon, host the masters).

There’s a lot of work to do yet, no doubt. There are still many imperfections, but the course is clear and we’re heading in the right direction.