By Robert Castley

The average response time for the social networking sites monitored slipped to over two seconds this month with an index average of 2.02 seconds. While some sites monitored achieved extremely quick download speeds – with Facebook, Flickr and YouTube all achieving times of less than 1.5 seconds – several sites are continuing to struggle in this index. All sites should be aiming for an average speed of under two seconds as consumers are becoming more and more accustomed with being able to access the information they want instantaneously.

No sites achieved 100% availability in May, with Facebook reaching the top spot with a 99.95% success rate. The index average is high, at 99.70% this month, showing that social networking site owners are starting to recognise the importance of availability online. However more and more Tweeters and Facebook users are now sending status updates from mobiles and smartphones. As well as focusing on the performance of Web sites, social networking organisations must also ensure that users wishing to access sites from mobiles are also experiencing the same, optimal service.    

About the author

Robert Castley has been solutions consultant at Keynote for nearly two years. Prior to working at Keynote, Robert worked as a Professional Services Consultant at a document management company, Macro 4, where he worked on developing custom web interfaces. Robert is passionate about web performance and optimisation and has over 10 years of web development experience. One of his proudest achievements is developing one of the world’s most popular Open Source Content Management Systems to the masses – Mambo, which now lives on as Joomla! Robert has a BTEC National Diploma in Computer Studies.

About the company

Keynote Systems is the global leader in Internet and mobile cloud monitoring. It provides companies with solutions for continuously improving the online experience. Founded in 1995, Keynote provides testing, monitoring and measurement products and services for any enterprise including online portals, e-commerce sites, B2B sites, mobile operators and mobile infrastructure providers. Keynote products and services help companies improve customer experience in four areas: Web performance, mobile quality, streaming and real user experience testing.