Tell HN: If you use Google Web Fonts your site loads much slower in China

9 pointsby ecubed11 lat temu1 comments

We all know that Google is blocked in China, but I think it is known to a lesser extent that fonts.googleapis.com is also blocked. As a result, any site relying on Google to serve fonts will appear to load much slower than it should.

StackOverflow is a prime example of a site that should not need a VPN to access from China, but in its current state requires one due to the reliance on Google to serve fonts.

So if you're looking to include the Chinese or China's expatriate population in your potential customer base, please consider the implications of reliance on Google services.

1 comments

zhte41511 lat temu

Yes, yes, yes. Not only Google Fonts, and not only China.

Jurisdictions

Anywhere where internet filtering is done leads to the risk that non-self-hosting (i.e. giving responsibility for delivery to a 3rd party) leads to a denial or degradation of service. This might even be somewhere in your neighborhood.

3rd parties:

Avoid CDNs (or run your own CDN) unless you only care about delivery to where you are/where places similar to you are.

Fonts: Self-host, or just use a stack of commonly installed fonts.

Analytics: Google Analytics is useless when Google is disrupted. Got visitors from China/other? Your analytics don't show them. Use something like Piwik that can be self hosted [and leave you in control of your data].

Media: Link to a picture or video? Self host, again. Multiple media hosts are blocked across multiple jurisdictions.

Anything else: Self-host if you care about delivery. Use 3rd parties when you're happy to not have delivery happen in cases that are felt not important enough to care about.