LINMO

Guidelines: Page Byte Size

A feature of LINMO-compatible web sites is the minimization of the size of each page in terms of the number of bytes that are required to represent it, or bandwidth consumption, without reducing the amount of content from its optimal level or adversely affecting its usability. Fortunately, it is often possible to dramatically reduce the the page byte size.

Bandwidth refers to the data transmission capacity of a communications channel on the Internet or other network. The greater a channel's bandwidth, the more information it can carry per unit of time. Usability refers to the convenience, comfort and satisfaction with which a product (e.g., a web site) can be used by various people in a variety of circumstances.

Reasons to Minimize Byte Size

There are several reasons that it is important to minimize page byte size:

(1) Many computer users have only very limited bandwidth available, particularly in rural areas in the so-called developing countries. There are tens of thousands of towns and villages throughout the world that have extremely limited Internet access, often only a single dial-up line that must be shared by numerous people. Moreover, it is frequently the case that the speed of the single dial-up line is slower than the 56kbps (kilobits per second) that is standard for dial-up in most industrialized countries. The smaller the byte size of a web page, the faster it can be downloaded and rendered (i.e., converted into its final form) by a web browser.

(2) Minimized byte size can help optimize network access for devices other than standard personal computers, such as handheld computers and mobile phones that are connected via wireless networks. It could also be important for the success of the so-called hundred dollar laptop, for which plans are being made to provide in large numbers to students in developing countries. This is just one of several ways in which LINMO-compatible sites are optimized for such alternative devices.

(3) Small byte size pages are particularly useful for alternative devices because of the smaller amounts of memory and storage (e.g., hard disk drive or flash memory space) typically available on such devices than on standard personal computers.

(4) Minimized page byte sizes can reduce the strain on the resources of the Internet service provider (ISP) or other site hosting organization in the case of large sites that receive large numbers of visits. By their very nature, LINMO-compatible web sites tend to be very popular and receive large numbers of visits. For heavily visited sites, minimizing the byte size can eliminate, or at least reduce, the need for mirror sites (i.e., sites with duplicate content) and multiple servers, thereby lessening the complexity of site management.

(5) Minimized page byte sizes can also ease the burden on the Internet infrastructure as a whole. Although the additional burden may not be noticeable for just one site that uses a lot of bandwidth, it can be large in the aggregate if there are numerous such sites each of which consumes a lot of bandwidth.

How to Minimize Byte Size

There are several ways in which page size can be minimized without reducing the quantity, quality or usability of the information provided. They include:

(1) Avoiding the use of unnecessary images. Even small images can add greatly to the total byte size of a page. For example, the size of a short, all-text web page might be as little as two kilobytes. However, the size of even a very small icon or other image can easily exceed this, and it is usually far larger. If an image is truly important for enhancing the content and/or usability of a page, compression techniques should be employed to minimize its byte size consistent with maintaining good image quality.

(2) Keeping pages short and focused on a single topic. Long pages about multiple topics tend to waste bandwidth, as users are often interested in only parts of them; related topics should be on separate pages carefully connected by hyperlinks. Concise wording without sacrificing content or clarity also helps keep pages short.

(3) Avoiding the use of redirection (i.e., automatic switching from one page to another), which is sometimes employed as part of a technique for counting page visits.

(4) Avoiding complicated page structures, including the nesting of tables and complex coding. Although this does not necessarily add to bandwidth, it can slow down page rendering.

(5) Not having advertisements. This is just one of several reasons for keeping pages free of advertisements.

Example of Byte Size Reduction

The reduction in page byte size can be dramatic, as can be seen by a comparison of pages about a narrow topic on The Linux Information Project (LINFO), which is the first example of a large-scale site that is mostly LINMO compatible, with pages about the same topic on other popular sites. For example, a comparison of pages defining the term hop (which is a specialized telecommunications term) shows that the LINFO page, with 224 words of text, has a size of a mere 2.3KB (kilobytes). This contrasts with 53.3KB for the 132 word Wikipedia page, 245.1KB for the 115 word Webopedia page and 399.2KB for the 15 word PCmag page.

None of the pages in this survey contained images relevant to the topic of hops (although all of those other than the LINFO page contained images irrelevant to hops). In the case of a similar survey about a topic for which the corresponding pages contained images that were actually relevant to the topic, the size disparity could be even greater, largely because the use of images is minimized in LINMO-compatible sites and any images are compressed to minimize size while maintaining a reasonable quality.