Are Web Caches Really Useful?
A misunderstood web cache can be a greater enemy to web programmers than Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). So, it’s vital for web programmers to understand the importance of web caches, because there can’t be anything worse than IE. The two primary reasons for using web caches are: • Reducing latency: Because an intermediate cache (which is closer to the client than the web server) can serve the content, it takes less time for the resource to reach the client. This makes the web site seem more responsive. • Reducing network traffic: Because several resources are reused and they don’t need to be fetched afresh from the server, caching reduces the amount of bandwidth used by the client, thus reducing traffic on the network.
