How to view slow loading web pages faster using Finch

Recently, I was trying to view a web page I found off Digg and it was loading so slowly that I had to wait about 2 minutes before the web page would even come up! Apparently, this person does not believe in web site optimization and had hundreds of pictures on a single web page!

Not only that, it was using some horribly loaded down design with lots of ads that were also taking forever to load. If I had been trying to view the web page over a slow Internet connection, it would have been impossible to view it!

So if you’re trying to figure out a way to increase the load speed of a web page, then I would suggest you try a service called Finch, it’s a good alternative to using an Internet Accelerator to speed up Internet browsing. 

Finch is a free service that can increase the speed at which a web page loads by simply removing all of the junk, which means images, CSS, flash, meta data, javascript, iframes, etc so that all you get is the text and the links.

Just type in any URL and Finch will load it up instantly! Usually my site takes about 5 to 10 seconds to load depending on the Internet connection you are using. with Finch, my web site loads in under a second! You can read all my posts without the fancy graphics, ads, CSS, images, etc.

Now for my site, the images are kind of necessary, but for most it’s not! For example, Finch reduces the size of the New York Time home page from 1.4 MB to a puny 84 KB! Now that’s pretty impressive!

According to the site, it’s useful for people who have slow connections since it can reduce the load time of a web page significantly. However, I also think it’s useful even if you have a fast Internet connection because it just lets you browse web sites and web pages much faster.

Since it does not run Javascript, sites like Facebook won’t work! Really it’s meant for those sites where you do a lot of reading and not a lot of interacting. So if you visit New York Times, Washington Post, CNET, ZDNET, or lots of blogs,  it’s perfect. It’s certainly not meant for web-based email like Gmail or sites where you have to login, etc.

Above is the Finch version of a blog I visit quite often. Another nice thing I like about Finch is that even though it’s all text, it uses fonts and colors that are very readable and not distracting. The fonts are smooth and crisp and big enough to read easily.

Source: Digital Inspiration