Load dynamic serverless content faster with search

Even when time-to-first-byte is fast, delays in fetching dynamic content can still make your serverless app or static site feel sluggish. In this talk, we’ll look at how Algolia’s low-latency infrastructure and ability to rank results in advance can speed this up, without the user ever typing a search query.

Presented at #AlgoliaSearchParty

Transcript

1. Josh Dzielak
   Load Dynamic Serverless
   Content Faster with Search
   Developer Relations Lead, Algolia
   8/10/2017
   #AlgoliaSearchParty
   @dzello
   github.com/dzello
   

   View Slide

2. > No application server
   > Caching is easier
   > HTML can be pre-generated
   > Possible to serve through a CDN
   Static sites are fast!
   

   View Slide

3. - Migrated from
   WordPress to static site
   - Hosted on Netlify
   - Uses APIs including
   Algolia, Stripe and
   Cloudinary
   Smashing Magazine - 10x faster!
   Beta: https://next.smashingmagazine.com/
   From 800ms to 80ms time to first load
   

   View Slide

4. Source: https://next.smashingmagazine.com/
   

   View Slide

5. > Some content can’t be pre-built
   e.g. user-generated or frequently updated
   > At runtime, this content must be fetched by the
   browser from:
   - A backend
   - An API
   > If this step takes too long, the site can still feel slow
   But not everything is static!
   

   View Slide

6. Source: https://blog.algolia.com/performant-web-animations/
   “Developers often invest quite a bit of time to reduce first
   page loads by even a few milliseconds, but forget to
   consider the impact of the interactions that follow.”
   — Emily Hayman, Solutions Engineer, Algolia
   

   View Slide

7. > Very low-latency search endpoints; tiny payloads
   Ideal response time: ~10ms server, ~40ms end-to-end
   How can Algolia help?
   

   View Slide

8. > Global index replication; like a CDN for dynamic content
   How can Algolia help?
   

   View Slide

9. > Custom rank records in advance; no query needed,
   relevant results can be served immediately
   How can Algolia help?
   

   View Slide

10. Demo!
    Algolia vs. “Backend”
    https://algolia-content-load.glitch.me/
    

    View Slide

11. Josh Dzielak
    Thank you!
    Developer Relations Lead, Algolia
    8/10/2017
    #AlgoliaSearchParty
    @dzello
    github.com/dzello
    

    View Slide