PhotoDude.com

Tue. Feb 19, 2002

2:00AM Weigh In

2:00AM Weigh In – OK, everybody rise and shine. No, there’s no news on who’s going to be the new UberPriest at Slate. Layne and Welch got drunk and mud wrestled for it, but the outcome is not binding. No, I just can’t sleep, and just found some nifty new web page scales, so let’s see how much everybody weighs. [NOTE: All sizes are as of about 1:45-2:00AM, and may have changed by the time you read this. I’ve also included the approximate load time based on an average 56K modem connection, and the number of links on each page, somewhat misleading as it counts all links, not just outside links. These results are not guaranteed or warrantied in any way, so, no wagering]

Despite his heavyweight status as the Newest Fox Babe, Ken Layne.com weighs in at a svelte 31 KB (6 sec., 104 links), presenting a very admirable weight to content ratio to which we all should aspire. His mud wrestling partner Matt Welch comes in at a more husky 68 KB (13.5 sec., 150 links), but as you will see, that’s still nearly featherweight.

For example, I’m almost twice as big a load: 123 KB (24.5 sec., 306 links). Charles Johnson is not far behind at 142 KB (28.5 sec., 483 links). The Corner is pretty fat but low on links at 157 KB (31.5 sec., 150 links). The Buzzmachine weighs 164 KB (33 sec., 255 links), and Sgt. Stryker is in the same range: 168 KB (33.5 sec., 275 links)

Going into this, I figured the best known heavyweight would also be the ”heaviest,” and at 219 KB (44 sec., 451 links), InstantPundit certainly crushes the competition.

But in this weigh-in, he’s a mere Twiggy. Ladies and Gentlemen, meet Jabba the Blog, Libertarian Samizdata, weighing in at 531 KB (106 sec., 375 links), the half megabyte Orson Welles of weblogs.

I think I just got a hernia. Weigh in over.

ADDENDUM: Ken says ”...I’m of the Matt Drudge school of Web design: links and text. Design is swell if you’re talking about houses or cars. But a Web page—at least the Web pages I read—needs to be simple and needs to load quick over the phone line in whatever Motel 6 I’m staying at.” I don’t want to go off on a design rant (in essence, form should follow function, but that doesn’t mean it has to be ”all function”), however page load times are about more than just the ”design school” of the author. Clearly, you can create a quarter to half megabyte page of nothing but text and links. But at least at the Motel 6, they’ll leave the light on for ya while your page loads…

DOUBLE ADDENDUM: (sounds painful) – A Request: Reid should weigh Dawson’s site. There is something very large and heavy in there. Indeed: 495 KB of large and heavy.

And by the way, the tool I use for this is a simple bookmarklet (#3 on that page, along with others that are useful).