Barry Pollard
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tunetheweb.com
Barry Pollard
@tunetheweb.com
2.8K followers 390 following 1.1K posts
Web Performance Developer Advocate at Google Chrome helping to make the web go faster! All opinions my own.
Posts Replies Media Videos
Reposted by Barry Pollard
stoyan.me
Web Performance Calendar day 26 with Sébastien Mischler on HTML streaming/flushing and how this old trick (featured in the first edition of the calendar) applies to today's CSR world. Show content now, not after JS finishes thinking. Fast pages, happy users.
calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/revisit...
Revisiting HTML streaming for modern web performance
Introduction Modern web performance issues often come from delayed rendering rather than network speed. Client-side hydration and heavy JavaScript pipelines can prevent browsers from showing content ...
calendar.perfplanet.com
December 26, 2025 at 2:20 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
malwarejake.bsky.social
Just wow. @pluralistic.net.web.brid.gy came out swinging in this article. He's right though and that's the coolest part.
In 2026, countries that want to win the trade war have a unique historical possibility: They could repeal their “anticircumvention” laws, which make it illegal—a felony, in many cases—to modify devices and services without permission from their manufacturers. Over the past two decades, the office of the US Trade Representative–which is responsible for developing and coordinating US international trade, commodity, and direct investment policy—has pressured most of the world into adopting these laws, hamstringing foreign startups that might compete with Apple (by providing a jailbreaking kit that installs a third-party app store), or Google (by blocking tracking on Android devices), or Amazon (by converting Kindle and Audible files to formats that work on rival apps), or John Deere (by disabling the systems that block third-party repairs), or the Big Three automakers (by decoding the encrypted error messages mechanics need to service our cars). The rents that these digital locks help American companies extract run to hundreds of billions of dollars every single year. The world’s governments agreed to protect this racket in exchange for tariff-free access to American markets. Now that the US has reneged on its side of the bargain, these laws serve no useful purpose.
December 26, 2025 at 12:47 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
web-standards.dev
Fixing the URL params performance penalty. @tunetheweb.com introduced No-Vary-Search, a new HTTP header that helps browsers and CDNs ignore irrelevant query params and improve caching efficiency. For now, supported only in Chrome 141. #performance #http

calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/fixing-...
Fixing the URL params performance penalty. 23rd Dec 2025. By Barry Pollard.
December 24, 2025 at 12:19 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
5t3ph.bsky.social
Oh hey, come work with me!

We're seeking an earlier-career front-end dev who is able to work in-office (multiple US locations).

Check it out if you have interest and experience in: #designsystems #CSS #a11y #webcomponents

adobe.design/jobs/job-pos...
Design Engineer, Spectrum Web
Join us and help build the next generation of our world-famous tools.
adobe.design
December 23, 2025 at 5:28 PM
tunetheweb.com
This one got released rather quietly and I think could do with a bit more attention!

Read about how to avoid caching performance penalties due to tracking query params and the like!
December 23, 2025 at 1:57 PM
tunetheweb.com
Good explanation of fetch priority!
December 19, 2025 at 1:55 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
stoyan.me
Web Performance Calendar day 18 with Amrik Malhans on breaking down LCP to pinpoint what's slowing down the page exactly and where to focus your UX-optimizing efforts

calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/the-ana...
The Anatomy of LCP - A Deep Dive into Sub-Parts
Optimizing LCP (Largest Contentful Paint) is not just reducing the file size of your images, there's a lot more that goes into optimizing the loading strategy - and you can only grasp where the bottle...
calendar.perfplanet.com
December 18, 2025 at 11:37 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
una.im
What are your biggest complaints about using the web right now?
December 17, 2025 at 12:07 AM
tunetheweb.com
Answering some of your questions about what it means now LCP and INP are "Baseline Newly available" across all major browsers. Let me know if you have any more!

web.dev/blog/lcp-and...

#CoreWebVitals #webperf
LCP and INP are now Baseline Newly available  |  Blog  |  web.dev
LCP and INP are now Baseline Newly available as of December 12, 2025.
web.dev
December 17, 2025 at 9:42 AM
tunetheweb.com
Nice little tool, and interesting stats.

www.madebyolof.com/bluesky-wrap...

This year on Bluesky I wrote 202 posts and 669 replies. I received 4,016 likes, whereas 224 was from my most popular post, and apparently I love saying "use" and 🧵!
www.madebyolof.com
December 17, 2025 at 9:15 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
web-standards.dev
Speeding up CSS with compression dictionaries. @yoav.ws shows how combining critical and full CSS via compression dictionaries cuts bandwidth and accelerates page transitions. Works now in Chromium. #performance #css

calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/how-to-...
How to load CSS (fast). 13th Dec 2025 by Yoav Weiss.
December 16, 2025 at 11:49 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
debugbear.com
Lazy loading out-of-viewport images can make the main content on your website load faster.

⬇️ Learn how in this video.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=CPJf...
How to defer offscreen images
Learn how to make your website load faster by lazy loading out-of-viewport images. 00:00 Page speed impact of offscreen images 01:18 Lazy load offscreen images in DebugBear 01:37 Result of the…
www.youtube.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:12 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
vivaldi.com
PSA: Our roadmap for 2026:
December 16, 2025 at 10:22 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
bell.bz
I like this write up.

@piccalil.li is a file based "CMS" — infinitely more complex than cursor.com — and it's a nightmare to run because it's massive

It gets a bit tiresome reading "you don't need X because of AI" stuff, so I'm glad folks like Sanity are rightly standing up to it.
“You should never build a CMS” | Sanity
Lee Robinson migrated cursor.com off Sanity. He made good points. Here's what he missed.
www.sanity.io
December 16, 2025 at 10:15 AM
tunetheweb.com
The 2025 State of HTML survey is out

2025.stateofhtml.com

And I love the opening stat — Lazy Loading FTW!

Built-in, simple to use, attributes and elements are HTML's super power. And you can see that reflect in other attributes with the largest increase (details/summary, dialog, fetchpriority!)
70% Proportion of respondents having used lazy loading, the most-used feature among those with the “Newly Available” Baseline status. Chart of the largest increased features including: lazy loading, srcset and sizes, <details> and <summary>, Content-Security-Policy, <dialog>, Defining Custom Properties with <template>, Shadow DOM, <search>, fetchpriority, details name.
December 16, 2025 at 9:26 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
sachagreif.com
It took a while (mainly due to the huge quantity of data collected on some questions!), but the #StateOfHTML 2025 survey results are now live!

2025.stateofhtml.com/en-US/

Big thanks to @lea.verou.me who not only designed the original survey back in 2023, but then came back this year to update it.
State of HTML 2025
The 2025 edition of the annual survey about the latest trends in the HTML ecosystem.
2025.stateofhtml.com
December 16, 2025 at 7:06 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
bkardell.com
"The
The <time> element should actually do something
A common UI pattern is something like this: People do lots of stuff with that “4 hours ago.” They might make it a permalink: Or they might give it a tooltip to show the exact datetime u…
nolanlawson.com
December 15, 2025 at 2:53 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
oliverdunk.com
Debunking the myth that every browser has its own set of extension APIs: youtu.be/PW2u2IZWjtk?...
Can you make a cross-browser Chrome Extension?
YouTube video by Chrome for Developers
youtu.be
December 12, 2025 at 3:45 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
oliverdunk.com
If you’re using server-side AI models, you usually need an API key to call them. A couple of weeks back I made a video looking at how to handle that in a Chrome extension: youtu.be/pl4pz4nWa3w
How can you keep API keys safe in a Chrome Extension?
YouTube video by Chrome for Developers
youtu.be
December 15, 2025 at 5:40 PM
tunetheweb.com
🎙️LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLE! It's been one of DevTool's most requested features… weighing at eiiighty-five votes… 10 years in the making… entering the ring from Chrome 144… Heeeerre's: Individual request throttling!!!

developer.chrome.com/blog/throttl...

🥊 It's a knockout! The crowd does wild! 👏🙌🎉🥳
Throttle individual network requests  |  Blog  |  Chrome for Developers
Use the Request conditions tab to block specific URLs or apply custom network throttling profiles to individual resources.
developer.chrome.com
December 15, 2025 at 4:19 PM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
stoyan.me
Web Performance Calendar day 15 with @nicj.net, @cliffcrocker.bsky.social and @karlijnlowik.bsky.social Löwik presenting an update on W3's RUM Community Group and YOU

calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/rumcg-a...
RUMCG - A year in review
performance.now() 2024 was the year we officially launched the W3 RUM Community Group. The idea to form a community group around real user monitoring (RUM) came from the desire to come together as ven...
calendar.perfplanet.com
December 15, 2025 at 9:57 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
hidde.blog
Out today: the Q4 release of the in progress Web Sustainability Guidelines.

New filters, updated UX section, less overlap/duplication and more www.w3.org/TR/web-susta...

Release notes: github.com/w3c/sustaina...

hat tip to @alexdawsonuk.bsky.social and Rose Newell and everone else (see notes). 👏👏
Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG)
The Web Sustainability Guidelines (WSG) provide recommendations to help digital teams make informed sustainable development decisions. They cover the planetary, people, and prosperity PPP) principles ...
www.w3.org
December 15, 2025 at 7:44 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
richycraven.bsky.social
Rob Reiner: I'm going to make a coming of age drama, a fantasy adventure story, a romantic comedy, a psychological horror and then a courtroom drama.

Us: Across your entire career?

Reiner: In a 6 year period.

Us: That sounds-

Reiner: -Each one will be arguably the best movie in that genre.
Extract from Rob Reiner's Wikipedia Filmography 1986 - Stand By zme 1987 - The Princess Bride 1989 - When Harry Met Sally 1990 - Misery 1992 - A Few Good Men
December 15, 2025 at 8:04 AM
Reposted by Barry Pollard
zeldman.bsky.social
Once more for the folks in the back: accessibility is a human right. Your web standards godfather shares thoughts on a small atrocity.
Accessibility is a human right, cruelty a human wrong.
Once more for the folks in the back. Calibri is easier than Times New Roman for folks with certain visual disabilities to read. That’s why the Biden Administration chose Calibri for their digital communications: to include more people and make life just a wee bit easier for the disabled. And who in their right mind could object to that? You know who, and they’re not in their right mind—unless you’re talking far-right.
zeldman.com
December 13, 2025 at 4:35 PM
tunetheweb.com
ICYMI, some considerations for how to make CSS Carousels accessible:

developer.chrome.com/blog/accessi...
Make accessible carousels  |  Blog  |  Chrome for Developers
How the features in CSS Overflow 5 can help you create more accessible carousel patterns.
developer.chrome.com
December 14, 2025 at 9:31 AM