Google Web Accelerator 798
Lukey Boy writes "Google has released a free web accelerator product for both Firefox and Internet Explorer. According to their information page the software uses Google servers as a proxy for web content, delivering the pages to your system more rapidly and compressing them beforehand."
More info (Score:5, Informative)
Is this like... (Score:5, Informative)
Oh... yes.
Google Web Accelerator uses various strategies to make your web pages load faster, including:
* Sending your page requests through Google machines dedicated to handling Google Web Accelerator traffic.
* Storing copies of frequently looked at pages to make them quickly accessible.
* Downloading only the updates if a web page has changed slightly since you last viewed it.
* Prefetching certain pages onto your computer in advance.
* Managing your Internet connection to reduce delays.
* Compressing data before sending it to your computer.
no automated queries (Score:1, Informative)
It's good to see Google abiding by their own rules.
People on WMW [webmasterworld.com] have pointed out that you can stop Google pre-fetching by banning IPs 72.14.192.0/20.
Re:Smart. Scary. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Hmm, (Score:3, Informative)
I assume it would calculate your current download speed as well as the size of the information you're retrieving, then do the same based on going through Google's servers, and come up with an approximate value of saved time.
Something like that anyhow I think.
Hope be with ye,
Cyan
Re:This is useless... (Score:2, Informative)
3. Can I use Google Web Accelerator with a dial-up connection?
Dial-up users may not see much improvement, as Google Web Accelerator is currently optimized to speed up web page loading for broadband connections.
No thanks! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I'm a little too paranoid for this one... (Score:4, Informative)
Well, domains yes, specific pages, no. [spywareinfo.com] And they even let you turn off the autoupdater if you want. First time I've ever seen that from Google.
What I'd to know is how this helps a broadband connection but not dial-up. My connection already loads most pages nearly instantly.
Re:Squeezable Software (Score:2, Informative)
We already have compression of HTTP content, it's just that some idiots don't enable it on their servers.
The magic words are: apt-get install libapache-mod-gzip
Re:Someone explain? (Score:2, Informative)
The larger your proxy is, the more probabilities you have of finding that page that you are looking for in the proxy's cache.
Google has a tremendous amount of cached pages and images.
That's where the real gain comes from.
Plus, the trad proxys that I know do not compress. I don't know how relevant this is because for the most part, web pages' heavy stuff is not text but images that are already compressed. Still, this will save you some time.
Then keep in mind that the google servers are probably faster than other servers and more resistant to slashdot-and-the-likes web tsunamis.
Re:Once again Google forgets us. (Score:3, Informative)
HOSTS file is now useless... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:Smart. Scary. (Score:2, Informative)
Remember that they are already retrieving a huge amount of the web on a regular basis for their search engine. They may well have a "faster connection to the web server", since they might have already retrieved a copy of the resource beforehand. Also remember that, assuming it's not dynamic content, they can serve copies of the resource to hundreds of thousands of people without having to download it themselves.
Basically, it boils down to whether they can serve the content faster than the origin server, and do so often enough to outweigh the cache misses. Given that plenty of origin servers are underpowered/underconnected and that they already have a decent infrastructure around the globe, this isn't hard to believe.
Also, they can use heuristics in the client software to decide whether or not to hit the Google servers or go direct to the origin. In the case of going direct to the origin, there is no slowdown at all.
As far decompression being slower than the network connection, that won't be a problem unless you have something like a 286 on a broadband connection.
Re:do no evil! (Score:5, Informative)
Nice troll. Inflamatory, and correct only by a tenuous strand of tortured logic. It was Union Carbide who gassed Bhopal, which didn't merge with Dow until 1999, a full fifteen years after the incident, and five years after Union Carbide sold its 51% interest in the Bhopal facility.
Re:Exactly. (Score:4, Informative)
Yahoo and presumably Alexa do send referrer information if WebRank is enabled. [yahoo.com] I don't know what percentage of people turn off WebRank, but with Web Accelerator, there's no opting out if you use it.
Works under linux! (Score:4, Informative)
1) Install on a Windows box
2) Copy Program Files\Google\Web Accelerator files to linux box
3) "wine GoogleWebAccWarder.exe &"
4) Set your browser proxy to "localhost" port 9100
5) Surf with speed
If it fails, check your windows\temp directory for the google logs...
Note - this comment posted with Google Web Accelerator.
Re:I keed! I keed! (Score:5, Informative)
Re:I keed! I keed! (Score:4, Informative)
Unfortunately, the catch is google now knows your surfing habits, and their's no privacy policy.
Neuter GWA in FireFox and IE and make it optional (Score:1, Informative)
Internet Explorer 6:
Tools -> Manage Add-ons
Disable:
Google Web Accelerator - Toolbar
Google Web Accelerator Helper - BHO
Tools -> Internet Options -> Connections
Remove the proxy entry, or use your own, like The Proxomitron [proxomitron.info] or Proximodo [sourceforge.net].
FireFox 1.0.3:
Mozilla Firefox\chrome\chrome.rdf
Mozilla Firefox\chrome\overlayinfo\browser\content\overla
Mozilla Firefox\chrome\overlayinfo\global\skinstylesheets
Search for "googlewebacc" and remove any <RDF:*></RDF> sections that contain it.
Tools -> Options -> General -> Connection Settings...
Remove the proxy, or use your own such as the two linked above.
No more toolbars!
Now, if you want to use GWA selectively, you can use the aforementioned Proxomitron or Proximodo and configure them to use an external proxy, with the 127.0.0.1:9001 address as you would for other browsers. Then setup FireFox, IE, or whatever to use 127.0.0.1:8080 as the proxy address.
Re:Smart. Scary. (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Sure I won't, but I am still annoyed I can't! (Score:4, Informative)
You can probably centralize this! (Score:4, Informative)
1) Compress all HTML content passed between Google and client
2) Use local cacheing
3) Send diffs (just what changed) of files that are in the cache but out of date.
I could refresh Slashdot over and over, and the only thing that I would have to download when the page changes is a compressed diff, probably a savings of at least an order of magnitude.
In the situation you describe though there are many computers using one connection. Since GWA interfaces with browsers via a simple HTTP proxy (The IE/Firefox integration is just for the "x seconds saved" display), you should be able to install GWA on one computer and set multiple other computers to use that proxy.
Of course Google might check to see if the machine making the request is on localhost.
Why you "can't really see" (Score:5, Informative)
The reason you're skeptical is because you don't know as much about the Internet as google does.
When you download a web page on your 6Mbps cable modem, do you think it instanly goes to 6Mbps throughput, transfers the page, and then drops to zero? It doesn't. The efficiency *decreases* as your connection gets faster (which is why google does not claim to speed up slow connections - there's little room for improvement). Here's why:
The TCP stack under your browser starts by establishing a connection (3 way handshake). Then it sends a packet with the HTTP request. Finally after those long round trip times of basically doing nothing, your browser starts receiving HTML. As the HTML comes in, the process repeats for the embedded stuff (images). If you have a fast link (and especially if the server is far away), your link spends a lot of time doing nothing while connections are established and transactions take place.
By routing your connection through google, many efficiencies can be gained. These are listed in, of all places TFA [google.com]. It's not just caching, either. Prefetching, for example, is a trick where their servers will start requesting and transferring the images within a web page, even before your browser has requested them. Since the HTML already went through google's proxy, they know what your browser is going to request before your browser does.
So instead of just pooh-poohing it because you don't understand the technology, why don't you go download a copy of Ethereal [ethereal.com], which will let you see these tricks in action. Then you can offer us a more educated opinion based on empirical fact, instead of a long diatribe amounting to "I don't understand how it works, therefore it sucks".
Re:Smart. Scary. (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Why you "can't really see" (Score:5, Informative)
One, you can do prefetching without selling your soul to google. Allegrosurf is good at this.
Two, pipelining. All modern browsers use pipelining, which severely limits the amount of handshaking that needs to be done to a server.
Final comment, from what I've seen, the people who are using this program (at least with Opera) seem to see no improvement in the first hour or so of use. In fact, some are reporting slowdowns.
I maintain my reservations about this being able to offer a significant boost to browsing, especially when contrasted to the major privacy intrusion.
Re:Sure I won't, but I am still annoyed I can't! (Score:3, Informative)
For other browsers running on Windows, you'll need to manually configure your proxy settings to 127.0.0.1:9100 for HTTP connections.
Re:Smart. Scary. (Score:3, Informative)
Looks like there is. Either from Microsoft [utsi.edu], or this outfit [officecalendar.com] which isn't too expensive. $15 for the latter vs untold MILLIONS (of pesos) for the former. But still, it's there if you want it.
From the Terms and Conditions: (Score:2, Informative)
Re:It Hosed my Firefox 1.0.3 install (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I keed! I keed! (Score:5, Informative)
I clicked on the "Pricay Policy" link and saw this:
http://www.google.com/privacy.html [google.com]
GWA with Opera-and any browser with proxy support (Score:1, Informative)
WFM with Opera 8.0
Re:Why you "can't really see" (Score:3, Informative)
Possible MAJOR Problem - not Privacy (Score:2, Informative)
Re:No catch!? (Score:4, Informative)
They say:
The problem is that this information, when correlated with information from web sites you're using such as user names, passwords, etc. (all of which would be routed through their proxy and caches except for https information which goes through the proxy but not the caches), can tell them, or anyone else who has access, exactly who you are, where you surf and what you do.Their privacy policies completely fail to address this issue.
Re:Sure I won't, but I am still annoyed I can't! (Score:1, Informative)
Re:Request on mouse over? (Score:2, Informative)
It wouldn't necessarily slow things down. Google is the one using its bandwidth (as well as the host), but the user will get a possibly compressed file from a nearby speedy google server. And it's not all bad for the host either because many people getting copies from the google cache reduces bandwidth for the original host.
I tried the Google Accelerator and guess what? (Score:3, Informative)
Anti-Advertisement software gets bypassed and the ads I haven't seen for years are now displayed for my 'enjoyment'.
Thanks, but no thanks. I'm off to uninstall this POS.
HOSTS file was semi-useless before... (Score:2, Informative)
A .pac file is better suited to blocking ads by denying connections in a web browser. It lets you block/allow by URL rather than just hostname (i.e. block http://server.com/ads/ [server.com] but still allow http://server.com/goodstuff/ [server.com] through). It's a lot like the Ad-Block extension for Firefox, but not tied specifically to one browser. It works in all modern browsers and many other internet programs (email clients, etc.). See http://www.schooner.com.nyud.net:8090/~loverso/no- ads/ [nyud.net] for details. As with Ad-Block, a few regular expressions in a no-ads.pac file will block most ads as well, even with no site-specific filters.
A no-ads.pac file will be slower than a HOSTS file (it uses Javascript inside the browser to process it, rather than being handled by the networking subsystem of the OS). However, any remotely-modern PC should have no problem with the tiny amount of extra processing needed. John LoVerso has claimed that he used to run it on a (sub-200MHz?) P1 and didn't notice any slowdown on that.
I do use my HOSTS file to block servers that I absolutely don't want any connections made to (in my browser, email, IM, or anything else). However, I found the HOSTS file to work very poorly for blocking ads in web pages, compared to these other methods.
Re:Sure I won't, but I am still annoyed I can't! (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Exactly. (Score:4, Informative)
Hmmmm...I wonder how long it will take before my company recognizes that I am no longer opening connections to multiple sites...
Re:No Linux support either (Score:3, Informative)
I looked over the install, it's a "simple" transparent proxy.
The XPI watches for browser interaction events and communicates these to the Client. For instance, a mouse over preloads the anticipated URL.
There's two primary C++ programs, GoogleWebAccClient.exe, GoogleWebAccWarden.exe.
The firefox files are:
GoogleWebAccFirefox.dll (GUI controls, event forwarder)
GoogleWebAccFirefox.jar (look and feel elements)
GoogleWebAccFirefox.xpt (Event monitor)
The IE files are:
GoogleWebAccToolbar.dll
The controllers are:
GoogleWebAccClient.exe (Receives events, controls proxy to google)
GoogleWebAccWarden.exe (Manages cache and search)
Just a complete guess though...