Google recently announced that they are hosting popular open source javascript libraries for everyone to use in their projects. This is a great opportunity to have fast access to javascript libraries without worrying about bandwidth charges.
Despite some negative feedback about Google tracking websites, I believe that this is not a major concern as many websites already use Google Analytics and Adsense for tracking purposes.
The real benefit of this announcement is that if everyone starts using the same core javascript files from Google’s site, these files will be cached on every website that uses them. This will significantly speed up websites across the web, which is fantastic for everyone. The only challenge now is convincing people to use the libraries hosted by Google.
Personally, I am a fan of jQuery but there are many other javascript libraries available and Google supports all the major ones. Currently, you can get jQuery, prototype, script.aculo.us, MooTools, and dojo from their site. There’s something for everyone!
Now it’s time for me to start utilizing these libraries. As mentioned earlier, jQuery is my preferred language and I plan to use it more extensively on my future websites as well as replacing existing code on my current ones.
Let me know what you think on Mastodon, or BlueSky (or Twitter X if you must).