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Google To Host Ajax Libraries
ruphus13 writes "So, hosting and managing a ton of Ajax calls, even when working with mootools, dojo or scriptaculous, can be quite cumbersome, especially as they get updated, along with your code. In addition, several sites now use these libraries, and the end-user has to download the library each time. Google now will provide hosted versions of these libraries, so users can simply reference Google's hosted version. From the article, 'The thing is, what if multiple sites are using Prototype 1.6? Because browsers cache files according to their URL, there is no way for your browser to realize that it is downloading the same file multiple times. And thus, if you visit 30 sites that use Prototype, then your browser will download prototype.js 30 times.
Today, Google announced a partial solution to this problem that seems obvious in retrospect: Google is now offering the "Google Ajax Libraries API," which allows sites to download five well-known Ajax libraries (Dojo, Prototype, Scriptaculous, Mootools, and jQuery) from Google. This will only work if many sites decide to use Google's copies of the JavaScript libraries; if only one site does so, then there will be no real speed improvement.
There is, of course, something of a privacy violation here, in that Google will now be able to keep track of which users are entering various non-Google Web pages.' Will users adopt this, or is it easy enough to simply host an additional file?"
As a developer, privacy of my users is of paramount importance. I have grown increasingly concerned with Google's apparently incessant need to pry into my searches and my browsing habits. Where once I was a major Google supporter, I have trimmed my use of their service back from email and toolbars to simple searches and now even won't use their service at all if I am searching for anything that may be misconstrued at some point by guys in dark suits with plastic ID badges. The last thing I am going to do as a developer is force my users into a situation where they can feed the Google Logging Engine.
public void karmaWhore(String url){addSlashdotComment(fetchContent(url));}
The "problem" already exists. It's "how can we collect more data about user's browsing habits?" You have to consider that Google is a for-profit business and hosting these files represents a bandwidth cost and a maintainence cost for them. They are unlikely to do this unless they believe that they can turn that into a profit, and the mechanism available to them is advertising revenue.
This is very similar to the purpose of the already-existing google-analytics.com. I block this site in my hosts file (among others) and I take other measures because I feel that if a corporation wants to take my data and profit from it, they first need to negotiate with me. Since Google is not going to do that, I refuse to contribute my data. To the folks who say "well how else are they supposed to make money" I say that I am not responsible for the success of someone else's business model, they are free to deny me access to their search engine if they so choose, and I would also point out that Google is not exactly struggling to turn a profit.
The "something of a privacy violation" mentioned in the summary seems to be the specific purpose.
It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education. - Einstein
In theory, cache hits wouldn't give Google an information at all. So when the api works the way it is supposed to, it doesn't reveal anything.
Someone could even put up a site called googlenoise.com or whatever, with the sole purpose of loading the useful versions of the library into the cache from the same place.
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
Additionally, if you're using compression, it is likely that one large file will compress more effectively than a collection of smaller files. (You *are* using compression, aren't you?)
You have to consider that Google is a for-profit business and hosting these files represents a bandwidth cost and a maintainence cost for them.
The bandwidth cost should be small since Google uses these libraries already and the whole idea is to improve browser caching. The maintenance cost of hosting static content shouldn't be that high, either. I mean, really.
Since the labor, hardware, and bandwidth costs all seem to be low, Google wouldn't be under pressure to make the investment pay. Google hosts lots of things that don't benefit them directly and from which they gain no real advantage except image.. Despite being a data-mining machine, Google does a lot of truly altruistic stuff.
Put identity in the browser.
Google Analytics is invaluable for small business. AWStats and others cannot compete on ease of use and accuracy. By blocking the domain in your hosts file, you aren't sticking it to Google, you are hurting the Web sites that you visit. I'm employed by a small newspaper and we use Google Analytics in order to see where our readers are going and how we can improve the experience for you. Google already has this information through AdSense, or do you have that blocked too? Again you're hurting small business.
You may refuse to give them your data, but if I had the ability, Apache would refuse to give you my data until you eased off on the attitude.
When you visit a website, the site owner is well within their rights to record that visit. To assert otherwise is an extremist view that needs popular and legislative buy-in before it can in any way be validated. The negotiation is between Google and website owners.
If you want to think of your HTTP requests as your data, then you'd probably best get off the Internet entirely. No one is every going to pay you for it.
Also:
Red herring. No one says that. No one even thinks about that. Frankly there are far more important privacy concerns out there than the collection of HTTP data.
I understand that people like to jump onto privacy, but there are a couple of things to think about here: - We have a privacy policy that you can check out - There isn't much information we can actually get here because: a) The goal is to have JavaScript files cached regularly, so as you go to other sites the browser will read the library from the cache and never have to hit Google! b) If we can get browsers to work with the system they can likewise do more optimistic caching which again means not having to go to Google c) The referrer data is just from the page itself that loaded the JavaScript. If you think about it, if you included prototype.js anyway then we could get that information via the spider... but it isn't of interest. We are a for profit company, but we also want to make the Web a better faster place, as that helps our business right there. The more people on the Web, the more people doing searches, and thus the better we can monetize. Hopefully as we continue to roll out services, we will continue to prove ourselves and keep the trust levels high with you, the developers. Cheers, Dion Google Developer Programs Ajaxian.com
We use analiytics. We use it almost exclusively to improve the experience of our customers. We don't care how many people come to our site. We care how many buy... and we have internal reports for that. What we do care about is:
How many people are not using IE. (We found it was worth making sure all pages worked on most all.
How many people are at 1280*1024 or over.
We dropped the notion that we needed to program for 800*600, thereby letting people use more of those big ass screens they buy.
Where are most of the people located?
We now have an east coast and west coast server.
What pages are most viewed?
We made them easier to get to.
Who doesn't have flash?
It was 2.08%, but I'm still not going to let them put flash on my site.
Do not meddle in the affairs of sysadmins, for they are subtle, and quick to anger.
Your grasp of the web sucks. Here's what happens on the second page you load on that site:
I use maybe 20KB of JavaScript in parts of my site. Why tack an extra 20KB onto each and every pageload, meaning that each takes about another 4 seconds for someone on dialup? To satisfy the screwed-up sense of purity for some premature optimization fan who doesn't really understand the issues involved? No thanks. My site is optimized for real conditions.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?