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Alexa speed rating + nostalgia

rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
edited February 5, 2005 in SmugMug Support
I accidently stepped over Alexa again some days ago. They have some kind of traffic meter with some detailed statistics for the big sites. Here it is for smugmug: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=smugmug.com

Here in Germany it takes some time before smugmug-pages load and I always thought this is the way it is, but now I see that the page relatively "Slow (80% of sites are faster), Avg Load Time: 3.4 Seconds".
I don't know which data they use, but maybe you can work together with them somehow to find the weaknesses on a global view.
I really would like to see faster response times, if it is possible. :scratch

Now we come to the nostalgia part:
The smugmug main page from October 2002: http://web.archive.org/web/20021001210841/http://www.smugmug.com/ :deal

and thinking about one of the first members, I thought of Andy Williams! Here comes his page from August 2003...Watch for the incredible bio-photo: http://web.archive.org/web/20030808002817/http://williams.smugmug.com/
Yeah, there was a time before Moon River Photography. :D

Sorry, I couldn't resist after seeing the waybackmachine on Alexa. *duck-and-run* :bad
Sebastian
SmugMug Support Hero

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    NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    Sebastian, very interesting!
    that waybackmachine feature is really intriguing..:-)

    Thanks for the link!thumb.gif

    Cheers!1drink.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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    NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    More on wayback
    If you use Dave's toolabr (www.dsqd.net) here is a local alias sample:
    wb|http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://%s|Wayback|Internet

    which allows you to go back like that: 
    wb microsoft.com
    Enjoy going back - at least to the origin of the Internet:-)
    Cheers!1drink.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    Nikolai wrote:
    which allows you to go back like that: 
    wb microsoft.com
    Enjoy going back - at least to the origin of the Internet:-)
    Cheers!1drink.gif
    Haha...somebody got addicted browsing old web pages! :D Was it really necessary to take the scariest of all? But they have an impressive collection of Gates pages.
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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    NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    I fugured..
    rainforest1155 wrote:
    Haha...somebody got addicted browsing old web pages! :D Was it really necessary to take the scariest of all? But they have an impressive collection of Gates pages.
    ..mac lovers do not use DSQD, so nothing's wrong with a well-known site being an example:-).
    I also checked amazon, google, ebay, borland, my own site - it's fun:-) My friends at work liked it, too:-)
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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    DavidTODavidTO Registered Users, Retired Mod Posts: 19,160 Major grins
    edited February 4, 2005
    Nikolai wrote:
    ..mac lovers do not use DSQD, so nothing's wrong with a well-known site being an example:-).
    I also checked amazon, google, ebay, borland, my own site - it's fun:-) My friends at work liked it, too:-)

    Nikolai,

    Did you get beat up a lot as a kid?

    Just wondering.



















    ;)
    Moderator Emeritus
    Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
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    NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    No, sir!
    DavidTO wrote:
    Nikolai,

    Did you get beat up a lot as a kid?

    Just wondering.
    M I C R O S O F T ! ! ! ! !
    iloveyou.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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    onethumbonethumb Administrators Posts: 1,269 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    rainforest1155 wrote:
    I accidently stepped over Alexa again some days ago. They have some kind of traffic meter with some detailed statistics for the big sites. Here it is for smugmug: http://www.alexa.com/data/details/?url=smugmug.com

    Here in Germany it takes some time before smugmug-pages load and I always thought this is the way it is, but now I see that the page relatively "Slow (80% of sites are faster), Avg Load Time: 3.4 Seconds".
    I don't know which data they use, but maybe you can work together with them somehow to find the weaknesses on a global view.
    I really would like to see faster response times, if it is possible. headscratch.gif

    Alexa works by keeping track of the average page load of everyone using smugmug. Since we're very image-heavy, we're very slow for people browsing on modems, even though our site could be much faster.

    There's really not much we can do, except maybe stop displaying photos. :)

    rainforest1155 wrote:
    Now we come to the nostalgia part:
    The smugmug main page from October 2002: http://web.archive.org/web/20021001210841/http://www.smugmug.com/ deal.gif

    and thinking about one of the first members, I thought of Andy Williams! Here comes his page from August 2003...Watch for the incredible bio-photo: http://web.archive.org/web/20030808002817/http://williams.smugmug.com/
    Yeah, there was a time before Moon River Photography. :D

    Sorry, I couldn't resist after seeing the waybackmachine on Alexa. *duck-and-run* blbl.gif

    I can do you one better: smugmug homepage evolution

    Looks like it doesn't have our current page, so I'll have to add it, but that's most of the variations we've been through.

    Don
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    Nikolai wrote:
    ..mac lovers do not use DSQD, so nothing's wrong with a well-known site being an example:-).
    I also checked amazon, google, ebay, borland, my own site - it's fun:-) My friends at work liked it, too:-)
    I wanted to check your DSQD-thingy, but the page was/is down?! ne_nau.gif
    But I won't need it anyways...my Maxthon (IE clone) has all I want...including such neat shortcuts, but I rarely use them, always being to lazy to set them up.:D
    Guess I'm not a script/automate-everything-guy.
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    onethumb wrote:
    Alexa works by keeping track of the average page load of everyone using smugmug. Since we're very image-heavy, we're very slow for people browsing on modems, even though our site could be much faster.

    There's really not much we can do, except maybe stop displaying photos. :)
    Nothing against the loading times of the pictures...don't get me wrong. The thing is when I enter the address, it takes usually 4-5 seconds to actually display the website title ("smugmug - photosharing....").
    This means after these 4-5 seconds I finally received the index.html-file. Before it's dns+request-time to you+answear-time from you and that's what I was talking about.

    It doesn't bother me when I'm at home, but maybe you know the uncomfortable silence when you want to show some pictures from your page to someone else and the page takes 4-5 seconds before saying "Here I am". In this situation these seconds feel like at least doubled. :D
    onethumb wrote:
    I can do you one better: smugmug homepage evolution

    Looks like it doesn't have our current page, so I'll have to add it, but that's most of the variations we've been through.
    Nice gallery idea, but how come that the waybackmachine has your prelaunch-site? Looks to me that the page was already online, but nobody knew that smugmug existed.
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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    NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    DSQD (aka Dave's toolbar)
    rainforest1155 wrote:
    I wanted to check your DSQD-thingy, but the page was/is down?! ne_nau.gif
    But I won't need it anyways...my Maxthon (IE clone) has all I want...including such neat shortcuts, but I rarely use them, always being to lazy to set them up.:D
    Guess I'm not a script/automate-everything-guy.
    Sebastina, trust me on this - it's a very neat thingie.. And the site is up now. If nothing else, "google" for "dave's toolbar".

    The difference between advanced browser and DSQD is that while it's very handy to launch some websites, you can also set it up do do ANYTHING you'd do from command line or somehow else, including navigating through you hard/network drives, ftps, launching apps, doing chores, picking up kids from school, recording TV shows, etc.:-)

    We use it work all the time, and that's also ususally the first thing I install on any machine (khm, I mean - "PC with Microsoft Windows on it" - Oh, hi David!:-) I have to work with longer than 30 minutes..

    The thing is - it takes parameters. I quite often don't even have the browser open. Instant access to all your favorite sites, dictionaries, maps, etc. Great tool!

    E.g.
    1+3+5*45 - gives you immediate result or launches google calculator
    someword: - launches dictionary
    some locatuion+ - launches map
    yp some business - launches yellow pages for this info

    There are tons of ways you can customize it, although deafults are pretty good. And if you are "advanced" enough to be able to hit F1 and edit a simple text file with Notepad - you can rest assured you're qualified to do it.:-)

    Highly recommended tool for any PC user!thumb.gif

    Cheers!1drink.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    my favorite tool
    Thanks Nikolai, I'll have a look at it in the next few days.
    While being OT, just a little tip for you: Total Commander (TC) is my favorite app I 1st install on windows PCs (never used any other for more than 15min as far as I remeber...only remember the MAC from my uncle some years ago with a one-button mouse rolleyes1.gif )
    If you remeber DOS times, there I used to be the norton commander and nowadays I can't and won't get used to the windows explorer. I hate this Explorer-thingy...I need two file-windows like in norton commander.

    TC can a lot out of the box:
    - compare by content
    - synchronize folders even over FTP
    - multi-rename-tool
    - create/compare checksum-files
    - has an incredible plugin-interface for everything else
    ...

    Check it out and don't let you scare away by the look. It's plain, but faaaassst! It's shareware, but it's worth every penny. And you get lifetime free updates.

    TC download: www.ghisler.com
    plugin-heaven: www.totalcmd.net
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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    NikolaiNikolai Registered Users Posts: 19,035 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    Man, you're preaching to the choir:-)
    rainforest1155 wrote:
    Thanks Nikolai, I'll have a look at it in the next few days.
    While being OT, just a little tip for you: Total Commander (TC) is my favorite app I 1st install on windows PCs (never used any other for more than 15min as far as I remeber...only remember the MAC from my uncle some years ago with a one-button mouse rolleyes1.gif )
    If you remeber DOS times, there I used to be the norton commander and nowadays I can't and won't get used to the windows explorer. I hate this Explorer-thingy...I need two file-windows like in norton commander.

    TC can a lot out of the box:
    - compare by content
    - synchronize folders even over FTP
    - multi-rename-tool
    - create/compare checksum-files
    - has an incredible plugin-interface for everything else
    ...

    Check it out and don't let you scare away by the look. It's plain, but faaaassst! It's shareware, but it's worth every penny. And you get lifetime free updates.

    TC download: www.ghisler.com
    plugin-heaven: www.totalcmd.net
    I used NC, later VC (Volkov Commander) during the DOS times, TC and FAR on Win32. I lost my FAR license over the last few years (changed few machines, you knoiw:-), but we still have site license for TC, and it's already sitting in my new XPS' quick launch bar:-).

    Cannot live without it, not in development that is.thumb.gif

    Fun facts: In USSR NC was so popular many people thought it's an operating system:-)rolleyes1.gif
    Cheers!1drink.gif
    "May the f/stop be with you!"
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    rainforest1155rainforest1155 Registered Users Posts: 4,566 Major grins
    edited February 5, 2005
    Nikolai wrote:
    Fun facts: In USSR NC was so popular many people thought it's an operating system:-)rolleyes1.gif
    Hehe, but it was a whole different experience of working in DOS with NC. I guess almost everybody doing some more or less serious stuff had a copy of NC from a more or less good friend. :D
    We're getting more and more OT. Maybe we should start a thread over in the free for all area: Tools you need for surviving in the windows world! deal.gif
    But I'm off for today...still haven't managed to continue working on my study stuff. rolleyes1.gif
    Sebastian
    SmugMug Support Hero
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