HttpWatch Blog
blog.httpwatch.com · Company blog · on HN since 2008
HttpWatch, maker of an HTTP debugging tool, writes about web performance, HTTPS adoption, HTTP/2, and browser connection behavior.
What HN saysCommenters cite it for HTTPS and HTTP/2 speed comparisons and for explaining what query strings expose over HTTPS.
18HN people shared it
9linked it in comments
15stories submitted
473story points
9 years agolast shared
2008people per year2026
Most-shared posts
- 1Google Has Given HTTPS a Huge Boost3 people · 59 points · first shared 2014 · 41 comments on HN
- 2Performance Comparison of HTTPS, SPDY and HTTP/23 people · 5 points · first shared 2015 · discussion on HN
- 3Top 7 Myths about HTTPS2 people · 4 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 4The Day Google Decided HttpWatch Was ‘Unwanted Software’1 people · 194 points · first shared 2015 · 73 comments on HN
- 57 Reasons our app costs $99.991 people · 114 points · first shared 2014 · 114 comments on HN
- 6Test Drive of the Google Hosted Ajax Libraries1 people · 29 points · first shared 2008 · 6 comments on HN
- 7TCP connections reuse in Firefox 5 and related performance improvements1 people · 28 points · first shared 2011 · 1 comments on HN
- 8The Surprising Effect of Distance on Download Speed1 people · 18 points · first shared 2008 · 18 comments on HN
- 9Five Tips For the Effective Use of PNG Images1 people · 10 points · first shared 2008 · 5 comments on HN
- 10The Firefox Process Model1 people · 3 points · first shared 2009 · 1 comments on HN
- 11Two Important Differences between Firefox and IE Caching1 people · 3 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 12The Performance Benefits of Ajax1 people · 2 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
- 136 Things You Should Know About Fragment URLs1 people · 2 points · first shared 2011 · discussion on HN
- 14The Sad State Of HAR File Compatibility in 20131 people · 1 points · first shared 2013 · discussion on HN
- 15IE will be more secure when Sun fix Java bug 65457011 people · 1 points · first shared 2008 · discussion on HN
What HN people wrote when they linked it
marpstar · 2018-01-16
Query params in the URL are encrypted for transmission, but not elsewhere: http://blog.httpwatch.com/2009/02/20/how-secure-are-query-strings-over…
tombrossman · 2016-12-23
For 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-comparison-…
tyingq · 2016-12-19
There seems to be, yes. Surprisingly little information to be had though.
http://blog.httpwatch.com/2015/01/16/a-simple-performance-comparison-o…
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).
dspillett · 2016-03-04
It 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 browsers will cache content (see http://blog.httpwatch.com/2011/01/28/top-7-myths-about-https/ amongst other references) and you have to be careful not to accidentally indicate that it is OK to cache something sensitive (which is why some servers send blanked "don't cache" headers for HTTPS responses unless explicitly ordered otherwise, it is the safest default).
tjohns · 2015-05-01
Yes. 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-self-signed-…
wildpeaks · 2014-08-08
I 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-a-huge-bo…
bithush · 2014-07-07
Am 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-a-huge-bo…
Irene · 2014-07-07
spjwebster · 2011-07-21
It'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-urls-to-s…
...and the unfortunately double-loading bug for CSS files in IE7/8 here:
http://www.stevesouders.com/blog/2010/02/10/5a-missing-schema-double-d…