Google’s Button is Slow…And so is Facebook’s.
Jun ‘11 2
There, I said it!
Yes Google, who built speed into its core values, has an entire website dedicated to making the web faster, developed PageSpeed, invents protocols named “SPDY”, and makes bad ass videos showing how quickly their browser loads web pages from the local disk, has their own take on the Like Button.
And it’s slow. Not only is it slow, it is slower than Facebook’s Like Button, which I didn’t think was possible.
Check out the painful WebPageTest results here:
- Google +1: http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110603_09_R97J/
- Facebook Like: http://www.webpagetest.org/result/110603_MC_R97K/
Let’s assume it’s the first time we get to experience the joy of these buttons (clear cache):
| Google +1 | Facebook Like | |
|---|---|---|
| Load Time | 2.2 sec. | 1.8 sec. |
| Bytes | 66 KB | 92 KB |
| Requests | 8 | 9 |
2 seconds to render a button? A button. Really.
It’s okay, +1 will soon be everywhere, so they are sure to be cached super-well? No. Repeat view (cached) results:
| Google +1 | Facebook Like | |
|---|---|---|
| Load Time | 1.8 sec. | 0.8 sec. |
| Bytes | 25 KB | 4 KB |
| Requests | 4 | 1 |
The worst part is that this button will almost certainly impact SEO ranking in Google, making it essential for most websites. And speed is also a ranking factor. I’m confused.
Facebook’s Like button is also required for maximizing traffic. Let’s see what they both look like — together:
Our bare minimum hope for first impression load time is 2.5 seconds. According to Google, entire pages should load this fast!
Google, Facebook: I don’t think you need me to make recommendations on how to fix it. I know you can do it – please make it a priority.
Please also provide an asynchronous JS snippet as a recommended option in your instructions like you did with Google Analytics.
You hurt me today Google, and you’re hurting the web. I thought you and me were like THIS:
steve howled... June 3rd, 2011 at 7:54 am
+1 (hah!)
anyone muttered... June 3rd, 2011 at 11:32 am
for google +1 download button js plusone.js to your own server and rename the path then u done
for facebokk using iframe make it fast
dont forget twitter follow button. use same trick as google +1
Pavel Paulau touted... June 3rd, 2011 at 2:50 pm
I guess local plusone.js wouldn’t work…
anyone announced... June 7th, 2011 at 4:57 am
you need to update frequently for changes
hzlzh touted... June 8th, 2011 at 12:33 am
Did you try to local plusone.js and they other js that should be used into your host.
I just only cached plusone.js, but still feel very slow loading +1.
Stoyan quacked... June 8th, 2011 at 2:37 am
I’m on it, man!
Nicolas Chevallier exacted... June 9th, 2011 at 12:59 am
it’s still surprising from Google to do this kind of error, especially when we know they have recruited qualified engineers!
Around the web | alexking.org blurted... June 12th, 2011 at 11:08 am
[...] Google’s Button is Slow – And so is Facebook’s. – It’s both difficult and frustrating to explain to clients that the reason their sites are slow is because of 3rd party scripts; typically ads and social buttons. (thanks Chris) [...]
Nick wrote... June 14th, 2011 at 8:56 am
+1 is crazy slow.
And most of Facebook’s stuff breaks W3 Validity. Sheesh!
Simon Doerksen stuttered... June 22nd, 2011 at 10:51 am
sillyness! you shouldn’t need to work around third party embed scripts with iframes and the like! c’mon google you are better then this..