Mod_pagespeed: the loading time is compressed by 50% to make your website faster

Mod_pagespeed is an open-source Apache module developed by Google to optimize your webpage to reduce response latency and bandwidth usage. Last week, Google officially launched the mod_pagespeed 1.0 stable version.

How does mod_pagespeed accelerate a website?

Mod_pagespeed is the module of Apache HTTP Server. It can make more than 15 types of optimization adjustments in real time during service webpage requests, including optimizing the cache, minimizing the client-Server round-trip distance, and compressing the effective transmission volume. After experiment, mod_pagespeed compresses the page loading time by up to 50%-in other words, it doubles the speed, sometimes even faster. The following video compares the effects of mod_pagespeed and when not in use.

How does mod_pagespeed work?

Mod_pagespeed improves webpage latency and bandwidth usage efficiency by modifying requested webpage resources. When Apache HTTP Server serves website resources, every optimization measure in mod_pagespeed module is put into a customizable filter. Some filters directly modify the HTML content, while other filters adjust the CSS, JavaScript, and images referenced in the page to construct a more optimized page.

Current industry usage of mod_pagespeed

Go Daddy, the world's largest host provider, works with developers of mod_pagespeed to deploy mod_pagespeed on their 8.5 million customer-owned machine. Cotendo also integrates mod_pagespeed into their core engine to improve their CDN service.

Google released mod_pagespeed in the form of open source, including Apache module compilation versions on multiple Linux platforms. You can download them here. You can also access the official email list of the mod_pagespeed project to obtain the latest update information.