Just came across this excellent new tool from Google – Page Speed.

According to Google, this is what it does:

• Page Speed is an open-source Firefox/Firebug Add-on. Webmasters and web developers can use Page Speed to evaluate the performance of their web pages and to get suggestions on how to improve them.
• Page Speed performs several tests on a site’s web server configuration and front-end code. These tests are based on a set of best practices known to enhance web page performance. Webmasters who run Page Speed on their pages get a set of scores for each page, as well as helpful suggestions on how to improve its performance.

On first test Page Speed is very useful and helpful. Our own front page scored a very respectable 85 out of 100, and the three main areas for improvement (Leverage browser caching, Minify CSS and Serve static content from a cookieless domain) are all explained very clearly in the Page Speed docs.

Overall, a very useful tool for web developers.