stanlemon

CDN's can be a handy tool for web developers. However, not using a CDN should not be a penalty when testing your site against Google Page Speed and Yahoo's YSlow. While testing Higher Things' website the other day my overall scores kept getting penalized because I don't use a CDN anywhere.

Now, to be clear, I am not opposed to using a CDN. In the case of Higher Things' though, I have code that manages my JavaScript and ultimately munges a compressed form together and serves a single file of JavaScript per page. Included in this single file is jQuery (an oft-served library over a CDN), some jQuery plugins and my own code specific to the site. Delivering it this way minimizes HTTP requests (something I got all the points for), but it also means I can't use a CDN.

The question arises then, if my score would be better if I broke out the jQuery core and loaded that by CDN. Is doubling the number of HTTP requests to load JavaScript a better choice then failing the CDN requirement?

My opinion is that not using a CDN should not penalize my score. Maybe it would be better to have extra credit if you use one, I don't know. I realize there are limitations to the investigating these tools can do, but the bottom line is I'm irritated because I've got a pretty good score, minus that pesky requirement...