Societal Benefits of Optimizing Graphics
What United States Federal Communications Commission Chairman Michael Powell once flippantly referred to as the "Mercedes Divide," related to internet connectivity between rich and poor, rural and suburban/urban, has slowly been closing over the past several years. However, the gap does still exist today...and webmasters who employ graphics optimization techniques will be helping to better serve populations who can either not afford or do not have access to broadband connections.
Graphics optimization helps to better-level the playing field between the wealthy and the poor in our world. Approximately 80 percent of all individuals in the United States who are accessing the internet are doing so via broadband connections, according to a February 2007 report by Nielsen//NetRatings. However, that means that nearly twenty percent of all American internet users are still connecting to the internet at speeds of 56Kbps or less. That means that if you are operating a web site that is going to attract traffic from a "typical" segment of the United States population, one in five of those visitors may not have the luxury of visiting your site with a broadband connection.
Factor in the numbers on a global basis, and the need to keep page and graphic load times as small as is absolutely possible becomes even more apparent. As of June 2006, only three (3) percent of the entire population of Turkey was accessing the internet with a broadband connection. 2.8 percent of Mexican citizens and 0.19 percent of residents in the nation of India were accessing the internet via broadband as well. If you truly wish to promote your site and its services in a global marketplace, you must appreciate the fact that there are millions...BILLIONS of individuals who are either not yet on the internet or who are only able to access the internet at 56Kbps or less.
Numerous other benefits of graphics optimization exist as well! To learn more about some of the financial and environmental benefits of graphics optimization, please follow the links included within this sentence.
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