I haven’t blogged about WebWait since launching it almost two years ago. But it’s been quietly growing into quite a pretty well known site among certain communities in various languages. What I like seeing is people are actually getting value from it…it’s not just a novelty, but a tool for them. Here are some examples.

A conversation about blog timings … and soup recipes:

At December 7, 2008 6:24 PM, Blogger Arfi Binsted said... I love clear soup like this. Kalyn, for some reason, almost 2 months, my browser goes so slowly when I come to your blog. I am not sure where it comes from. Today, I try to open it from the link on my blogroll, it works! Just as well it is a click away from a miracle just to happen for Barbara :) hugs. At December 7, 2008 6:41 PM, Blogger Kalyn said... Maris, this is one of the best parts of blogging in my opinion. Arfi, thanks for telling me. I don't know what's going on because I use Webwait.com and check and my blog always seems fine there. I'm going to remember to check back with you and see if it is still a problem. I do hope you're right that it's a good omen!

A softly, softly, twitter encouragement for the TechCrunch boys:

liking http://webwait.com/ - http://fav.or.it took 3.04s - (pretty quick!) - @techcrunch took 13s!! - sort it out boys

A tech journalist compares browser speeds:

I used WebWait.com to test how quickly Chrome 0.2, Firefox 3, Safari 3.1, and Internet Explorer 7 loaded the InformationWeek.com home page. The results for three page loads averaged were: Firefox (5.21s) Safari (6.34s), Chrome (6.48s), Internet Explorer (8.90s).

A reviewer notes how much caching helps and I discover in the process I can almost grok Italian geek-speak:

La seconda volta grazie alla cache WebWait ci ha messo 5.17. Un tempo discreto direi.

</blockquote> A blogger produces a "webwait research report" - schweet!:
Ko nih, tanya sket pun tak boleh. Oklaa aku tunggu ko buat positioning tuh. Sambil2 tu jom buat research… :: WebWait Research Report :: Site: farisfakri.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 0.11s telescopictext.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 0.12s google.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 1.11s Blog: ladycoder.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 5.29s blog.farisfakri.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 8.12s soleh.net: Average load time after 15 runs: 9.02s noktahhitam.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 10.07s life4hire.berceloteh.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 11.99s kujie2.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 14.10s berceloteh.com: Average load time after 15 runs: 14.52s Terima kasih Yam, kerana memberi aku kerja. Laporan kajian aku mendapati feedjit, nuffnang, mybloglog, dsb adalah antara yang menjadi punca utama kelembapan loading sesebuah blog. (MM - Google Translate says "Thank Yam, because I gave work. I found the study report feedjit, nuffnang, blogspot, etc. are among the main source of humidity loading a blog.")
WebWait is just one way to get an impression of speed, as the FAQ explains. And in cases like those above, it can give people a handy snapshot without relying on any browser-specific plugins. People also love screencapping their webwait results, as this google images search illustrates. It would be nice to somehow make a gallery of those. Anyway, I've got some time off coming up, and one of my projects will be to make some long-overdue updates to the site, while ensuring it stays dead simple to use.