[Sigia-l] The New Nielsen?

[Listera]

"Simon Willison" wrote:

> apologise if this is getting off topic, but I have to disagree. The
> principle reason many web pages are so "bulky" these days is the need to
> support outdated browsers such as Netscape 4.

While the markup code portion of web page weight may have increased, I'm
absolutely convinced that that's not the sole reason why. The web has gotten
increasingly and steadily more graphical and un-static. I could cite other
considerations, but it would suffice just to mention audio and video
streaming. 4-5 years ago there was very little of it today it's all over the
place. Bytes transferred via streaming obviously dwarf any NN4 code bloat
you mention. The overall trend is clear: more audio, more video, more
graphics, more interaction, more data, etc. Unless, of course, your name is
J Nielsen and someone paid you to say otherwise, this week. :-)

> As designers realise that striking designs can be achieved with an ever
> smaller footprint I think we will see overall page sizes reduce rather than
> increase, despite the prevalence of broadband in many countries.

You're on; that's a bet then. As long as it's not English beer. :-)

Best,

Ziya