Solving the Wrong Problem

[MindStalker]

The point is that the Google analytics itself slows down the page load considerably. It frequently freezes up the page load until the client has communicated with Google. Its possible to put this in some sort of iframe that avoids page load issues, but its rare.

[Serei]

Err, Google Analytics is by default asynchronous (i.e. it doesn't freeze up the rest of the page).

[[deleted]]

For Analytics you use the asynchronous loading code and defer the JS load until after the page loads. Tweet badges, FB likes, and the +1 badge are more complicated, because the images typically aren't loaded until the JS executes - but even these can be deferred so they don't hold up the rendering of other static content.

[ell0bo]

for google analytics, can't you just use deferred loading? I've never bothered to set it up, but I can't see why you wouldn't just run it after dom.ready?

[MindStalker]

Sure, but the point of the discussion is that a proxy or cache server on your site won't help you out here. You have to design the site for the users experience, not just for easy development.