Google has been very slow for the past few days...

June 27, 2003 9:56 AM

Google has been very slow for the past few days (through WorldCom T1.) When loading MetaFilter, it has been hanging on the Google Ads. While I don't want to add '127.0.0.1 pagead.googlesyndication.com' to my host file, I'm not sure of another way to resolve one site affecting another's ability to fully load.
posted by the fire you left me to Etiquette/Policy at 9:56 AM (16 comments total)

If that makes the site load faster for you, go ahead and block it. I have no control over Google's server speed so there's not much I can do about it.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 10:00 AM on June 27, 2003

Apparently (and please feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, whoever) google textads only pay on clickthroughs, anyway.
posted by stavrosthewonderchicken at 10:10 AM on June 27, 2003

I think if you wanted to, putting the textads in an IFrame and/or ILayer would negate the dependancy on Google's servers for the pages to load. It's been a while since i've done anything with these, and I'm not sure of their affect on people using something other than IE or Netscape.
posted by drobot at 11:24 AM on June 27, 2003

drobot, they are in an IFRAME, being served from google's servers.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 11:35 AM on June 27, 2003

Ahh, my mistake. I'm a bit rusty on this stuff - I figured that the ads were either being loaded server-side and dropped into the div tags, or by the googlesyndication.js file.

Still though, if the ads are in an iframe then the speed of google's servers should have no effect on how quickly the rest of the page loads.
posted by drobot at 11:44 AM on June 27, 2003

Google has been very slow for the past few days

Surely this must be the 'blogger' effect.
posted by Dennis Murphy at 12:36 PM on June 27, 2003

Still though, if the ads are in an iframe then the speed of google's servers should have no effect on how quickly the rest of the page loads.

I think the issue is how browsers handle it. Personally, I can read any page just fine, it's just that a couple seconds after I start going through a page, the google ad loads into position. On the front page of the site, it kind of locks up mozilla to scrolling until it loads, but on the comment pages, it's fine.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 12:52 PM on June 27, 2003

In my experienc, Safari Public Beta 2 (v74) locked up for a couple of seconds before loading the Google <iframe>, but since I downloaded 1.0 final earlier this week I haven't had any problems.
posted by mcwetboy at 1:35 PM on June 27, 2003

Still though, if the ads are in an iframe then the speed of google's servers should have no effect on how quickly the rest of the page loads.


They are actually inserted into the page using the <script> tag, so there could be a delay while the .js file is being fetched from google and processed. Once loaded, the .js file dynamically writes out an iframe containing the ad.
posted by fatbaq at 2:02 PM on June 27, 2003

fatbag - thanks, that makes sense.
posted by drobot at 2:06 PM on June 27, 2003

whoops - fatbaq, I meant
posted by drobot at 2:07 PM on June 27, 2003

This reminds me obliquely (since the google ads don't show up on https:// metafilter). Are you planning to add SSL for metatalk matt? If it costs more for an extra certificate, how much is that, cuz I might pony up some or all of it? Does anyone read the comments down here? This and other questions to be answered in a future thread.
posted by walrus at 3:22 PM on June 27, 2003

wow, didn't know there was a https server for MeFi. No ads, too [shhhh...]

Funnily, https://metatalk.metafilter.com resolves to the Mefi front page, not Meta. Hmm.
posted by dash_slot- at 3:56 PM on June 27, 2003

since the google ads don't show up on https:// metafilter

This is due to your browser settings. It probably doesn't allow foreign domains to load unsecurely. The ads work fine in mozilla.

Are you planning to add SSL for metatalk matt?

Not really, no.

If it costs more for an extra certificate, how much is that, cuz I might pony up some or all of it?

The problem is I need another $50/year cert + an IP to devote to it, which is problematic. My server currently uses one single IP address and the rest are host-headered, which isn't allowed with secure sites.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 4:10 PM on June 27, 2003

matt, your IP is plenty big enough for my pony (whoo-whaaa). now could you just give the poor bastard a rest! jeeeeez.

i tell ya, give a man his own IP and before you know it he's telling everybody!
posted by poopy at 7:27 PM on June 27, 2003

Not really, no.

Fair enough then :P
posted by walrus at 9:05 AM on June 28, 2003