Apache HTTP Server users can make use of Google’s latest tool, mod_pagespeed, to automatically optimize their websites’ speed. The module automates optimizations that are usually somewhat troublesome to do manually, like making changes to pages built by CMS, recompressing images when its HTML context changes, and extending cache lifetime.
Google on Wednesday released mod_pagespeed, a module for the Apache HTTP Server that will automatically perform various website speed optimization tasks. This includes 15 or so on-the-fly optimizations. Google claims mod_pagespeed reduces average page load times by up to 50 percent. However, mod_pagespeed works only on Apache servers and is complex to deploy, according to Omri Iluz, strategic partnerships manager at Cotendo, which provides site acceleration services to website owners. Google has released the mod_pagespeed module as open source for Apache for many Linux distributions.