Google shutting down PageSpeed Service

[Fotiman]

After 4.5 years of service, the PageSpeed Service team regretfully decided that the time had come to re-focus their efforts elsewhere and on 5th May announced that PageSpeed Service will be turned down. If you are using PageSpeed Service, you must change your DNS before 3rd August 2015 or your site(s) will become completely unavailable on that date.

[developers.google.com...]

[goodroi]

I suspect it wasn't used by enough webmasters for them to gain enough data to be worth the effort.

[netmeg]

Truth to tell I forgot about it.

[samwest]

Not sure why this was even a Google project, gtmetrix and the like seems to have it covered just fine. Stick to search.

[fathom]

Truth be told I ignored it completely.

[JAB Creations]

Wait, is this a specific part of PageSpeed overall or are they closing off PageSpeed altogether? I've rigorously tested with PageSpeed last year and have plans to test with it again. Could someone please clarify if we'll still be able to manually go to the PageSpeed site and test URLs?

John

[chewy]

As I understand this, PageSpeed Service was a CDN type service - which I presume is not the tool that tested page load speed.

Article explains it mostly.

[lucy24]

Uh ... This is something entirely unrelated to the similar-sounding Page Speed Insights?

[not2easy]

The PageSpeed Service is a tool, since they made it available as an Apache module and other ways to integrate it with a site, it makes sense for them to discontinue maintaining the original service. No, not anything to do with the test or analysis of pages, it was a way to deliver content optimized, minimized for better page speed. For some sites it is probably ideal. It performs different tasks that Google recommended to improve page speed such as minifying css, lazy loading javascript and media.

From the article:
"Google has developed the open-source Apache module mod_pagespeed. Pre-built binary modules for Apache 2.2 and 2.4 are available" - they're not shutting down the testing page at this time. The testing page is still there, linked to from the breadcrumb menu on the article.

[RedBar]

I've not read anything above!^!^!^

Is it a necessity any more?

Since 1993 I never had any page with more than a 100k load.

This past two years I really haven't cared, some actually have 150k and, God forbd it, 200k.!.!.!

I test my sites on a myriad of pcs, tablets and mobiles, my sites work, period, I have STOPPED worrying about everybody who has a crap phone, crap connection or a dodgy provider, it is NOT my problem.

[Readie]

I have STOPPED worrying about everybody who has a crap phone, crap connection or a dodgy provider, it is NOT my problem.

Isn't page load speed a pretty major SERP ranking factor?

[OmegaJunior]

Yes, load speed is a SERP and SEO factor, but not a major one. In fact, many high-ranking sites full of rewarmed clickbait load slowly, as do some major ecommerce and news sites.

That said, slow loading speeds and heavy sources have a big impact on usability and user experience. If your site annoys potential clients, all the clients that come to your sites are ones that already are clients and somehow are forced to use your site.

[dethfire]

I tried the apache plugin early on and it completely botched my server so I had to disable it

[JAB Creations]

Thank you for the clarification not2easy. I don't have the time I used to so I wasn't aware that they had developed an Apache module.

RedBar, you should care somewhat about lower end devices though not entirely, I think a fair rule of thumb is support about 15% more than you would care to and you'll do well.

John

[BillyS]

I saw too many complaints about it messing up servers, never bothered to try it.

[tangor]

As I recall (when I first looked and then moved on) this was an G attempt at CDN... and I don't give G (or anyone else) that much access. In the years following, other CDN players have done a better job than G... without the same stigma. Perhaps the shutdown is lack of participation/acceptance?

[Nutterum]

Yes, load speed is a SERP and SEO factor, but not a major one. - Tell this to a mobile news website. Still PageSpeed is something I totally forgot about as well as many others here.

[RedBar]

you should care somewhat about lower end devices though not entirely

For 20+ years I did care however the past couple of years has changed everything. I not only test my sites here in the UK, I also have sales offices and agents all over the world testing my sites on their mobiles and tablets etc in the middle of the countryside and this includes Brazil, China and India.

All my sites work extremely fast with a maximum 200K page on smartphones and as more old phones are binned then more people will be able to view all sites, not just mine.

And one thing my sites have as an advatage is that they are not cluttered with loads of advertising garbage that many have which are slowing things down, and in many cases, breaking the browser altogether and causing it to shut down completely.

I have seen this happen, especially with Android, many times this year and it seems to be getting worse.

[MikeNoLastName]

Probably getting rid of it because they finally realized the biggest page load delays were being caused by their own Adsense Ads