I noticed there's not yet a topic that specifically deals with MxBoost and what exactly this
feature is and does. It got mentioned as side note in other topics but never really discussed.
So let me try and lift a tip of the veil for whoever hasn't found out through other means/ways yet or those to come. I don't know full details, what I know is what I gathered from reading and from using it and a bit of logical thinking. So if I am not exactly spot on, plz don't hold it against me.
I won't be too far off in general, but
when it comes down to details I also do not know all the specifics.
What is it?
MxBoost is a feature that stores specific resources locally on your hard disk, in a dedicated da
tabase
file for later re-retrieval to
speed up
loading of pages on sites offering support for the technology. Contrary to regular web accelerators, these resources are then only
downloaded again when gone missing for whatever reason, or when updated on the server.
Can I specify which resources?
No. currently only the sites supporting this feature, control which resources are pre-downloaded. Typically this will be static resources such as images (smilies,
icons,
button images) and whatever else may be specified.
You do however have total control over which site you enable it for, in fact, you must explicitly opt-in for each site you activate it on. (see below)
Which sites support it and how do I recognize this?
At the time of this writing and for as far as I am aware of, MxBoost can currently only be used on some
Maxthon sites. A site which supports MxBoost can be recognized by having the following image located either in top or the bottom of the page:
. There is however an option for interested site owners to request a trial, although I am not sure if this is already set fully in motion.
To enable MxBoost you need to click the image, if you haven't yet enabled the feature, you will then be asked if you want to have it enabled at this point and that you'll need to restart Maxthon if you do. If you needed to restart you will need to revisit the page and again click the image. A new tab will open with the MxBoost main site where you need to confirm your choice as next and last step.
What about the Web Accelerator and Super MSA?
Well, of course there's a reason (more than one actually) why this form of local persistent caching was introduced on top of the already existing Web Accelerator and Super MSA. The latter two are only useful on sites that have relative static content and don't update often. On very dynamic sites, like forums, they are even counter productive, because you might not get to see updates immediately. Plus a cache wipe requires a complete re-download of the most used resources on the first new visit. MxBoost doesn't suffer from either of these disadvantages as it works independent of your browser's cache.
Apart from not being influenced by cache manipulations, making pages always load faster for sites you enable this feature on, using MxBoost also makes a big dent in the bandwidth figures, because not only causes it to load pages much faster, it can also save a very considerable chunk in traffic for both you and the site owner over time.
How much does it save me in traffic?
This depends a lot on how often you visit a boosted site of course, when you go to
Setup Center and click the link to edit the list of sites, a
dialog will pop up showing the list of currently boosted sites in the
left column and in the next column, titled "Flow" it will mention a figure in KB or MB. Here's where I'm not sure, my guess is that this figure is reporting the cumulative total of bytes saved from having to be downloaded. If that is so then it would mean I've got almost half a gigabyte saved in bandwidth visiting this forum alone on this PC... that's a lot of minutes waiting for pages to be loaded, minutes I did not have to spent waiting
Should I use it?
I would say yes, absolutely! To begin with, it most definitely makes for a faster page loading, even better at times than using a web accelerator, and that is
without the risk of not getting the most up to date
version of a page.
And for some maybe of less
importance, but considering capped sub
scriptions and dial-up still exists, it also saves you a substantial amount of bandwidth over time.
But, even without considering these facts. You would also be in
directly supporting Maxthon as company this way by saving them some $ (times #MxBoost users) on their bandwidth bills... (Bet you didn't think of that one ey
) So, even if you do not really need to, because you've got a 250mbit fiber-optic running into your living room, it's still worth considering enabling the feature as an alternative to a donation. (although these will always be welcomed I am sure
), the only downside is, this one ain't tax-deductible
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