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Get ready because a ranking factor that was kind of important until now is receiving all sorts of quiet guidance from Google that things will change again.  Page Loading Time, call it Page Speed like Google does, is literally how fast an individual page loads.

Google is serious enough about this factor that there is a page speed section on Google Code describing their new plugin. Yes, the company that built the Chrome browser created a Firefox plugin that rides along with FireBug.  And this is some seriously good development advice, if not simple SEO advice.   After testing on our home page, we got results showing some inline CSS no longer being used.    Our big hit was on caching and setting expiration dates. I don’t feel so bad because visiting Google News showed that they too had CSS issues.

Amazon, which knows a thing or two about code but probably doesn’t care if it messes with usability, got beat up by the new tool, including a warning for my new favorite, “Serve static content from a cookieless domain”. After grumbling about the amount of work I had to do, I took the tool to the World Wide Web Consortium because if anyone gets good coding concepts, they would be the folks.    They got beat up too — almost as much as my sites did so I’m in good company. Meanwhile, page speed has been hinted at for months if not longer.  Now you need to start doing some reading and focus your radar a bit more on the entire concept.  Oh, and W3 folks?  Google says you need some help.  Here’s the screen shot from Monday morning.

Google's new Page Speed plugin finds fault at W3.org
Google’s new Page Speed plugin finds fault at W3.org

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NOAA image showing power. Red means outage.
NOAA image showing power usage. Red means outage.

After I told a second client about Google Apps’ dashboard this week, I realized that many people are still unaware that the search and media company updates a page to tell users about outages related to Gmail, Google Docs and other product extensions.

When I’ve lived in areas prone to power outages, everyone in the neighborhood knew the power company’s phone number.  Over time, we grew adept at parsing their statements about when power would be restored. Sometimes going to bed at 8:15 can be good for anyone… especially you Type A bloggers. The power company promoted their information service with refrigerator magnets, stickers for the handset of landline phones and vanity telephone numbers.  The line was answered by a recording and callers with emergencies were told to call 911, but all you really want to know in a blackout is when the power is being restored.  Every other decision falls out of the answer to that question.

Google is fast reaching utility status in many small businesses.  The company’s webware is poised to carve increasingly larger chunks of Microsoft Office’s market share.   When these apps or Gmail suffer an outage like the one on November 1, users need a fast way to find out when Gmail will be restored.   The company hasn’t done a very good job of notifying people about their “Google Apps Status Dashboard” so bookmark the site now in case you’re email is down or your documents are inaccessible. And remember that it’s okay to go to bed early sometimes too.

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Felix Hernandez at Yankee Stadium on May 5, 20...
Felix Hernandez in 2008.   Image via Wikipedia

Hire oddball talent, observed Tom Peters in his heyday as Guru du Jour.  He was telling business leaders to look beyond pedigree, beyond the right schools or consultancies and devel0p staff that had the skills and drive to succeed.

Credit the Seattle Mariners for doing just that with Felix Hernandez, their baby-faced Venezuelan pitcher who first started playing for them while a teenager.  Baseball history is littered with the remnants of Cooperstown busts created too early for teen phenoms, but the Mariners stuck by their man. And Felix Hernandez was consistently on the brink of greatness. Each season, as he crossed into his early 20s, the young man they call “King Felix” pitched between 190 and 200 innings of major league baseball.   Each year, he struck out between 165 and 176 batters.   But he never had a winning season.  All the signs pointed to one, but for four years, Hernandez consistently lost more games than he won.

Credit the Mariners then, not for seeing what everyone else saw in those flashes of brilliance, but for sticking by their guy.   They didn’t overpay for what was delivered, but did boost his salary more than $100,000 in 2008, a sign that they liked what they saw. Then the breakthrough. Felix Hernandez led or was near the top rank in every major pitching category he qualified for during 2009.  He was selected as an All-Star.  He won 19 games, losing only 5, and stepped up his pitching from “lots of potential” to “brilliant”.  Handled the ball every 5 days from May 8 to the end of the season, a span of 26 games, Hernandez consistently threw 100 pitches and deep into the game, allowing the bullpen to rest.  The team’s pitching workhorse did all this for a team that won slightly more games than they lost.

ESPN has a fun tool called the Cy Young Predictor.    The model uses a formula crafted by two highly respected statisticians and predicts the winner of each league’s Cy Young Award, given to that season’s best pitcher.   The model awards Hernandez the most points in either league, and the closest competitor in his league trails by more than 7%. Assuming the model and pundits are correct, Felix Hernandez will receive a Cy Young Award this month at the age 0f 23.

That outcome wasn’t always expected, even during this year.  Hernandez reeled off four straight victories and then lost three straight games.   His career won and loss record stood at 43-39, respectable and average.  Then Hernandez  went the rest of year winning 15 games and losing only 2. In any occupation, from baseball pitching to marketing to practicing law or medicine to painting, we all have opportunities to show our potential.  The smart leader that recognizes and nurtures potential among quirky talent, even a teen phenom who hadn’t yet developed, can be rewarded many times over for patience and guidance. One year doesn’t make a career in any of those occupations, but credit the Seattle Mariners for realizing the talent they had on board needed time to develop.