Top all-time · #3991
HttpWatch Blog
Company blog · blog.httpwatch.comwebprogramming
HttpWatch Blog is the company blog at blog.httpwatch.com, writing about web and programming. Since 2008, 18 different Hacker News readers have linked it 25 times, most often “Performance Comparison of HTTPS, SPDY and HTTP/2”. The last post was in 2021, but the archive is still widely read.
Too few sampled comments (10) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers link this HttpWatch blog as a reference on HTTP and web performance: HTTPS adoption and ranking, protocol-relative URLs, HTTP/2 page speed, and browser network debugging.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 10 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
News, articles and all things HttpWatch
Most-linked posts?
- /2014/07/07/google-has-given-https-a-huge-boost/2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2014-07-07
- Performance Comparison of HTTPS, SPDY and HTTP/22 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2015-01-17
- Top 7 Myths about HTTPS2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2011-01-28
What Hacker News says?
Query params in the URL are encrypted for transmission, but not elsewhere: http://blog.httpwatch.com/2009/02/20/how-secure-are-query-st...
Comment linking /2009/02/20/how-secure-are-query-strings-over-https/
on “Ask HN: What's the recommended method of adding authentication to a REST API?”Submitted The Day Google Decided HttpWatch Was ‘Unwanted Software’ as a story · 194 points
HN discussionYes. Just email the self-signed certificate to yourself, then open it up on the iOS device. You can also create a personal CA and install it the same way, if you plan on connecting to more than one host. A quick search turned up some more instructions here: https://blog.httpwatch.com/2013/12/12/five-tips-for-using-se...
Comment linking /2013/12/12/five-tips-for-using-self-signed-ssl-certificates-with-ios/
on “Deprecating Non-Secure HTTP”Submitted 7 Reasons our app costs $99.99 as a story · 114 points
HN discussionIt's actually IE7 and IE8, and only for CSS file URLs (as opposed to URLs in CSS files). Details of protocol-relative URLs here: http://blog.httpwatch.com/2010/02/10/using-protocol-relative... ...and the unfortunately double-loading bug for CSS files in IE7/8 here: http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2010/02/10/5a-missing-schem...
Comment linking /2010/02/10/using-protocol-relative-urls-to-switch-between-http-and-https/
on “WebPutty: CSS editing goes "boink"”Submitted Google Has Given HTTPS a Huge Boost as a story · 59 points
HN discussionI guess this article from a month ago was right when they observed a boost of their ranking: https://blog.httpwatch.com/2014/07/07/google-has-given-https...
Comment linking /2014/07/07/google-has-given-https-a-huge-boost/
on “HTTPS as a ranking signal”Submitted Test Drive of the Google Hosted Ajax Libraries as a story · 29 points
HN discussionThere seems to be, yes. Surprisingly little information to be had though. http://blog.httpwatch.com/2015/01/16/a-simple-performance-co... I don't think server push was used in this benchmark, it's arguably a poor mans way to achieve part of what's discussed in the referenced paper (serving early dependencies...early).
Comment linking /2015/01/16/a-simple-performance-comparison-of-https-spdy-and-http2/
on “System loads web pages 34 percent faster by fetching files more effectively”Submitted TCP connections reuse in Firefox 5 and related performance improvements as a story · 28 points
HN discussionIt isn't just the network load. If you are on a small device the RAM use is not entirely insignificant. The CPU load too, though I think the use of animation/video in adverts is more of a problem in that respect than the overhead of using jQuery instead of modern DOM APIs directly. Even just considering network load, you need to be careful about the cache control headers that you send to ensure that all common brows…
Comment linking /2011/01/28/top-7-myths-about-https/
on “Show HN: Let's encourage ad blocking”Submitted The Surprising Effect of Distance on Download Speed as a story · 18 points
HN discussionFor me, the possibility of faster page loads with HTTP/2 is the main selling point, plus the usual TLS advantages of guaranteeing the integrity of page content, etc. Plenty of info on speed out there, here's one example: https://blog.httpwatch.com/2015/01/16/a-simple-performance-c...
Comment linking /2015/01/16/a-simple-performance-comparison-of-https-spdy-and-http2/
on “HTTPS Deployment Growing by Leaps and Bounds”Submitted Five Tips For the Effective Use of PNG Images as a story · 10 points
HN discussionAm I the only one who finds it a little funny that the link in this post is to http and not https ? :) https://blog.httpwatch.com/2014/07/07/google-has-given-https...
Comment linking /2014/07/07/google-has-given-https-a-huge-boost/
on “Google Has Given HTTPS a Huge Boost”Submitted Performance Comparison of HTTPS, SPDY and HTTP/2 as a story · 5 points
HN discussiontext-only version: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:NotzT67... the image: https://blog.httpwatch.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/chart....
Comment linking /wp-content/uploads/2014/07/chart.png
on “Google Has Given HTTPS a Huge Boost”Submitted Top 7 Myths about HTTPS as a story · 4 points
HN discussionThis article from 4 days ago hints Google has finally started doing it: https://blog.httpwatch.com/2014/07/07/google-has-given-https... Did other sites observe the same https boost recently ?
Comment linking /2014/07/07/google-has-given-https-a-huge-boost
on “Ask HN: Why are so few links posted as https?”Submitted The Firefox Process Model as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Two Important Differences between Firefox and IE Caching as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted 6 Things You Should Know About Fragment URLs as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Performance Benefits of Ajax as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted The Sad State Of HAR File Compatibility in 2013 as a story · 1 points
HN discussionSubmitted IE will be more secure when Sun fix Java bug 6545701 as a story · 1 points
HN discussion
