On preloads and preloaders
Loading all the resources a web page needs is a complex process. Some resources can cause the browser's parser to block, preventing other resources' discovery. In other cases, resources can be hidden from the parser altogether. Yoav Weiss discusses how browsers discover and load resources and explores preload, a new link relation enabling early resource discovery.
| Talk Title | On preloads and preloaders |
| Speakers | |
| Conference | Velocity |
| Conf Tag | Build resilient systems at scale |
| Location | Amsterdam, The Netherlands |
| Date | November 7-9, 2016 |
| URL | Talk Page |
| Slides | Talk Slides |
| Video | |
Parsing HTML in order to load a full web page is a complex process. On the one hand the browser needs to discover external resources as soon as possible. On the other hand, those same resources can in some cases block the browser’s HTML parser, as it may change the eventual result. Over the years, developers have implemented mechanisms in browsers to cope with this issue and ensure that resources are discovered even if the parser is blocked. Yoav Weiss discusses these mechanisms and recent development efforts in the area and shares ways that developers can help the browser discover resources. Yoav then explores “link rel=preload”, a new link relation that can help us improve the browser’s resource discovery process, create various interesting new resource loading patterns, and get us faster-loading web pages.
