Speed Demon

Fireclick's Blueflame 1.0 adds speed to Web page downloads

Humans, by nature, have a short attention span. Companies doing business online must not forget that their Web site's download time is a critical element in their success. It is generally agreed that a site that does not load in 30 seconds or less will send customers elsewhere. Throw in the fact that the majority of the consumer and corporate population still uses 56K (or slower) modems for Internet access and you have a business problem.

Some of the variables that contribute to faster Web sites are streamlined Web design, server farms with load balancers, proxies and fast backbones. Aside from those, there are not many products that take on the challenge of improving a user's experience by increasing download speeds. However, Blueflame 1.0 from Fireclick has designed an ingenious method for doing just that.

We tested the product and found that it's easy to install, configure and administer. But most importantly, Blueflame increased the performance of our test site.

The way Blueflame works is simple. The software is loaded on a stand-alone server running Windows NT 4.0 or Sun Solaris 2.5/X and acts as a proxy between the Web server and a router. A proprietary Blueflame intelligence engine monitors user traffic and determines which pages and page elements are most commonly used. When a user accesses the Web site, the Blueflame server primes the client cache with content that it thinks will be asked for next, thus creating an almost instantaneous response time.

Blueflame continuously monitors and analyzes click-through traffic to predict the user's next step. The client's cache is primed during dead time or low-bandwidth time. An example of low-bandwidth time is when a user is reading content on the already loaded page and both the client and server are idle. For example, lets say that the majority of customers who access an online retailer glance at the home page, then click on the "Hot Deals" link with subsequent requests for detailed information about individual items that are on sale. Blueflame primes the user's Web cache with elements such as graphic files and textual content during the low-bandwidth periods. Priming the caches means that Blueflame actually uploads predetermined content to the Web client's cache. Thus, when information is requested, the response is instantaneous, since the information is already local.

Integrating a Blueflame server into an existing network was painless and quick. We installed the software on our Compaq ML370 Proliant server running NT Server 4.0, then started the necessary modules and used the browser-based administrator application to define a list of Web sites that we wanted to speed up.

Blueflame has three major server modules that facilitate the management process. First is the Real-time Click-through Analysis module that examines consumers browsing patterns using a proprietary algorithm. By collecting data from previous users, the module prioritizes site elements and the likelihood of them being requested during any given session. Then there is the Overload Protection module that monitors the Web server and optimizes network utilization. When bandwidth utilization is low, Blueflame takes advantage by sending more suggested page elements. The Real-time Decision module computes information from the previously mentioned modules and decides which elements are good candidates for priming the user cache. Finally, there also is a tiny Client component that is uploaded to the user's browser and is totally transparent. The component listens to the server "hints" and requests elements to be downloaded ahead of time. To get the test server working after it was installed, we simply inserted the IP address of the site and launched the modules.

Blueflame performed well under our tests, and we found many useful features make the product very flexible for most Web hosting environments. For example, we could easily configure manual or DNS server forwarding. In the case of a simple site, we would merely enter the IP of the server. However, in a situation where different DNS servers are used on the outside and inside of the network, we would let Blueflame decide which server to forward any given request to. We also liked the overload protection where Blueflame stops accelerating pages if the Web servers are working overtime.

Another useful feature is logging. This feature allowed us to match the type of log that our Web server was running and log rotation times. We also appreciated the monitoring mechanism that displayed session and network traffic, page display and real-time histograms, and more. We can see how monitoring data combined with log files can contribute to better overall site design. It finds out how your customers use the site, then modifies the design to fit user habits.

Hot Points

The primary benefit of Fireclick Blueflame is that predownloaded pages are displayed immediately when requested. The outcome is a greatly enhanced browsing experience for consumers, resulting in an increased propensity to view more pages and ads, as well as purchase more products. The bottom line is more revenue from online sales, better user retention and better overall user satisfaction. Fireclick is so confident that its product will speed up your customers Web browsing experience that its pricing model is built around charging you only for the pages that are accelerated by the Blueflame software.

Andre Kvitka is a freelance writer based in San Francisco. He can be reached at akvitka@flashcom.net.