In the days of dial-up internet access, web pages did not load instantly — not even close. How quickly we forget. Now, most people will simply move on if a site doesn’t load in a few seconds. There are probably other pages that willload instantly, so why bother? Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) are trying to solve the problem of slow load times with a new system that is 34% faster than traditional methods.

When your browser loads a page, it has to reach out to a server someplace in the world and download objects like JavaScript code and HTML files. Often, when that object is integrated into the page, it calls upon other objects to be downloaded. These “dependencies” can slow down the rendering process because the browser only finds all the files as it goes, and it’s best to minimize the number of trips across the internet tubes. On a complex page, this process can get very sluggish with thousands of dependencies.

http://www.geek.com/news/mit-polaris-system-boosts-webpage-loading-speeds-by-34-1649386/