When the Dailykanban did shut down for the holidays, I promised that the idle time would be used to fine-tune our systems. Google will tell you that the most important part of a website is its speed. Dailykanban was always pretty zippy, but it became my New Year’s resolution to create a Dailykanban that couldn’t go any faster. Unlike most New Year’s resolutions, that goal was reached by January 3rd. Industry-standard speed-checking site GTMetrix.com now rates Dailykanban’s speed at a Golden Grail-worthy 100%/100%.
The hardest speed-up was the “structure” part of the test. For a long time, that wouldn’t go above 98%. In the way to perfection stood the same Google that clamored for speed, speed, speed. Google slows down websites with plug-ins, JavaScript, and ads. With a bit of black art, the 100% were achieved here also.
You can verify everything yourself by using this link. I don’t know how long GTMetrix keeps these readings around, if ours are gone, simply go to https://GTmetrix.com, and type in https://dailykanban.com. If the first reading is a bit slow, hit the “Re-Test” button for a second opinion, or a third. This primes the caches along the way between Dailykanban and GTmetrix. If you don’t get 100% on the 3rd try: YMMV.
How do we do it? Dailykanban uses the Cloudflare network that stashes always actualized copies of Dailykanban data in 250 servers across the globe. Unless you are in Alaska, Greenland, or Siberia, chances are Dailykanban data will be waiting for you in a datacenter downtown. On the webservers itself is an array of technologies that eke-out the last millisecond in response-time. Unless you are on a very slow Internet connection, which sadly we can’t change, you should get to your daily dose of auto news in a second, or less.
Dailykanban itself doesn’t just have one server, it has seven. The main server is always mirrored to three “hot spares” that can be deployed within seconds, should the main server go down, or need maintenance. If the excrement hits the ventilator, there are two more cold spares that can be brought on-line within minutes.
The Morning News data are generated by yet another server that scours the Internet 24/7, looking for the latest automotive-related stories. In the course of a year, some 2 million stories are found, stored in a database, and distilled down each morning (well, each night here in Tokyo) to a manageable number of stories with a little AI. The Dailykanban doesn’t regurgitate these stories like most car blogs, we give you the links straight from and to the source.
The search is not as easy as looking for words like “GM,” or “Ford,” or “Suzuki,” et al. “GM” could be genetically modified food, or the manager of a football team. “Ford” could stand for a long litany of people and things. “Suzuki” could be a baseball player, or a Japanese finance minister. And don’t get me going on “SEAT.”
