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Ethan Gardner

@ethangardner.com
302 followers 110 following 85 posts

I'm a full stack engineer with a bias toward the front-end. Web performance optimization, accessibility, and all that jazz.

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Ryan Townsend @twnsnd.com · 28/09/2026
So happy to share mine & @nicj.net's first @cloudflare.social blog post—during our 16th Birthday Week no less! 🥳 Today we announce BEACON, a #webperf research dataset we're contributing to the @rumarchive.com community. blog.cloudflare.com/how-fast-is-...
blog.cloudflare.com
How fast is the web? Explore billions of real-user measurements with BEACON
Cloudflare is open-sourcing the BEACON dataset, making billions of anonymized Real User Monitoring (RUM) performance records publicly available on Google BigQuery.
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Anne Petersen @apetersen.bsky.social · 19/08/2026
*quietly* Out today: USWDS 3.14.0. github.com/uswds/uswds/... The USWDS open source community and scarce part-time staff are _incredible_, just sayin’.
github.com
Releases · uswds/uswds
The U.S. Web Design System helps the federal government build fast, accessible, mobile-friendly websites. - uswds/uswds
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 12/08/2026
If you're optimizing your site for AI, the AI wants: - A fast Time to First Byte (200-500ms). - Server-rendered HTML - Lightweight markup - A valid accessibility tree - Layout stability - Captions and alt text - No stupid CAPTCHAs Sound familiar? That's the same stuff that human users want too.
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Aaron T. Grogg @aarontgrogg.com · 11/08/2026
Presenting a Web Performance MasterClass at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress I will be presenting an all-day Web Performance MasterClass at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress in San Jose, CA from September 23-25, 2026. I have a discount registration codes available if you're interested in…
aarontgrogg.com
Presenting a Web Performance MasterClass at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress
I will be presenting an all-day Web Performance MasterClass at the WeAreDevelopers World Congress in San Jose, CA from September 23-25, 2026. I have a discount registration codes available if you're interested in attending.
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Barry Pollard @tunetheweb.com · 21/07/2026
I've just release v6.0.0 of the web-vitals library. It includes support for measuring Web Vitals per soft navigation (like those used in SPAs) for supporting browsers (Chrome 151+) to give more accurate performance metrics for those sites. github.com/GoogleChrome...
github.com
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 08/07/2026
I don't know if this article will resonate or not, but I felt it necessary to write. I explore the risks of AI software development, defects, and the challenges of building a mental model when the agent does more and more www.ethangardner.com/posts/ai-age...
ethangardner.com
The Hidden Quality Risks in AI-Agentic Development
Agentic workflows can hide the cost/quality trade-off rather than remove it, making defects harder to trace back to their source.
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Barry Pollard @tunetheweb.com · 02/07/2026
The first part of Declarative Partial Updates (`<template for>` out-of-order HTML) is now available, unflagged, in Chrome 150!! developer.chrome.com/release-note... The second part (the new JS setting APIs, include the streaming ones) we're still working on the spec side, but maybe for Chrome 152?
developer.chrome.com
Chrome 150  |  Release notes  |  Chrome for Developers
CSS text-fit property, background-clip border-area, Focusgroup, and more.
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Barry Pollard @tunetheweb.com · 19/06/2026
The Chrome DevTools team are doing a "papercuts" sprint where they try to address lots of small, irritating bugs and annoyances. Reply with crbug.com links (no bug, no fix—that's the deal!) and will see what we can do. No promises though as some may be features/too big/unclear how to solve.
crbug.com
Chromium
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 18/06/2026
My presentation, Making Performance Allies from @perfnow.nl just got posted to YouTube - www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygdx.... The tips I share in the presentation were designed to make #webperf stick beyond the occasional task that finds its way out of the backlog. Enjoy!
youtube.com
Making Performance Allies - Ethan Gardner - performance.now() 2025
YouTube video by Web Conferences Amsterdam
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CSS Café @css.cafe · 02/06/2026
Our favourite conference of the year is back: CSS Day ✨ CSS legends, browser engineers, and web platform experts sharing talks on modern CSS, accessibility, design systems, browser internals, and much more. cssday.nl See you next week in Amsterdam? ☕️
cssday.nl
CSS Day 2026, 11th & 12th of June, Amsterdam
CSS Day is the conference for CSS designers, developers, spec writers, and browser vendors.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 17/05/2026
I did a 10-minute DevTools audit of a top 10k site with real RUM tooling installed. Every Core Web Vitals metric: poor. The hero image isn't preloaded. The tag manager, consent tool, and coupon service are. Organizational influence showed up in the preloads. www.ethangardner.com/posts/lightn...
ethangardner.com
What 10 Minutes Revealed About Web Performance and Organizational Priorities
A 10-minute DevTools audit of a top 10k website reveals heavy pages, poor Core Web Vitals, and a preload list that reads like competing team priorities
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 01/05/2026
I'm really excited for this one, especially for design systems where it will shed more light on component performance.
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Jake Archibald @jakearchibald.com · 01/05/2026
In response to our objection to the Prompt API, some folks replied "well, fix it. Propose something better". This is something we end up doing a lot at Firefox…
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Chrome for Developers @developer.chrome.com · 30/04/2026
It's almost time to implement the Soft Navigations API to accurately measure Core Web Vitals for SPAs (React, Vue, Angular, etc.). We applied your feedback to build the expected final shape. Conduct a final test during the origin trial in Chrome 147-149 → goo.gle/4ttf9eP
Soft Navigations Example
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mattzeunert.com @mattzeunert.com · 21/04/2026
Layout shifts often only happen at specific screen sizes or after a user interaction. That's why I built a new free tool: the CLS checker tests your site at 5 different viewport sizes and scrolls down the page. Try it out here: www.debugbear.com/test/cls
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Tim Kadlec @tkadlec.bsky.social · 17/04/2026
I'm very excited about this! Have seen some really significant impact in our tests. With the sizes of websites and JS payloads continuing to increase, this is both important and impactful.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 17/04/2026
I recently analyzed data from the HTTP Archive to see how the web has changed since the launch and adoption of AI tools. The results show a clear trend. The web is getting heavier at an accelerated rate. www.ethangardner.com/posts/object...
ethangardner.com
An Objective Analysis of AI's Impact on Page Weight
What has happened with page weight with the adoption of AI?
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 07/04/2026
Performance isn’t just about the first click; it’s about the entire journey. By making sure your pages are eligible for bfcache, you remove the technical hurdles of the network and CPU, creating a browsing experience that feels as fast as a native app. www.ethangardner.com/posts/bfcach...
ethangardner.com
Back/Forward Cache Demo and Debugging
Using bfcache to plug holes in your site's conversion funnel.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 04/04/2026
I'm listening to an audio book and the author said that he encountered software with more bugs than the Amazon, and I am totally stealing that expression.
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Harry Roberts @csswizardry.com · 02/04/2026
🎨 I gotta say, my latest is a little treasure trove: what even is `contain`?! csswizardry.com/2026/04/what...
csswizardry.com
What Is CSS Containment and How Can I Use It? – CSS Wizardry
CSS containment lets you isolate layout and paint work to self-contained ‘islands’. Here’s what each contain value does and how to use it safely.
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WebPerformance Report @webperfreport.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
⚡WebPerformance Report is more than a report in your inbox. Users also get access to their Board to manage reports, review deliveries, and follow Performance, Accessibility, and Security trends over time. Get your report here: 👉https://webperformancereport.com/ #webperf
WebPerformance Report Board displayed on desktop and mobile, showing a Reporting-as-a-Service platform where users can manage reports, review deliveries, and monitor Performance, Accessibility, and Security trends.
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Tim Kadlec @tkadlec.bsky.social · 26/03/2026
p75 and p90 JavaScript bytes on the web have exploded since May, 2025—easily the largest 10 month period based on HTTP Archive data since 2023. The long-tail is getting worse, very quickly. Gemini, what happened in May 2025?
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WebPerformance Report @webperfreport.bsky.social · 22/03/2026
⚡Featured posts this week: ✨ Telescope Test Agent: Mike Kozicki @nywebperf.com ✨ Agentic SEO for e-commerce: Emilie Wilhelm ✨ The Hidden Costs Behind Modern Frontend: Juntao Qiu ✨ Web Performance Archetypes: @ethangardner.com rdner 🙏 Special thanks to the authors! #webperf
⚡Featured posts this week from Perf Links by WebPerformance Report:
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Henri Helvetica 🧑🏾‍🚀🇭🇹 @henrihelvetica.bsky.social · 20/03/2026
✨ Core Web Vitals Summit: The Videos ✨ I'll be sharing the recorded sessions from the Summit stream, and some brief commentary on some takeaways and significance. All are welcome to join the conversation! 📆 Monday March 23rd ⏰ 1pm EST, 10am PST 🔗 www.youtube.com/live/LXYcknO...
SPDY stream Presents: core-web-vital Summit, the videos.
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Henri Helvetica 🧑🏾‍🚀🇭🇹 @henrihelvetica.bsky.social · 17/03/2026
Is it really possible to anticipate shifts in RUM data from immediate LAB results, using machine learning (ML)? We're going to find out with @ethangardner.com. Joins us for that conversation ✨ SPDY STREAM 027 ✨ 📆 Tomorrow, Wednesday March 18th ⏰ 1pm EST, 10am PST 🔗 www.youtube.com/live/ZEy0lRq...
SPDY stream, performance people project projects. Wednesday, March 18, 1 PM Eastern standard time online. Avatar of two persons in black-and-white. Colourful rally car that reads Repsol in branding.
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Sander van Surksum @sandervs.bsky.social · 16/03/2026
Your website has a UX Score and you've probably never seen it. It's based on real Chrome user data from real visits. Not a lab test. Not a guess. Enter any URL, get your score in 10 seconds: www.iron-out.io/benchmark Free. No login 🚀
iron-out.io
Free UX Score Check — Website Performance Benchmark
Check your UX Score for free. Real CrUX data across LCP, INP, CLS, TTFB and FCP. Benchmark against the top 300 Dutch websites. No login required.
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erwinhofman.bsky.social @erwinhofman.bsky.social · 13/03/2026
Yes, I know it's Friday… but I deployed this anyway! 😎 We added the No-Vary-Search response header to a bunch of sites to ignore tracking parameters like `utm_*`, `gclid`, and `fbclid`. They’re consumed by third party tracking scripts, but they should not create .. 1/4
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Tammy Everts 🍁 @tammyeverts.com · 04/03/2026
A slow UX affects people’s perception of three important brand elements that are completely unrelated to page speed: content, design, and usability. Here's why that takeaway is relevant in an increasingly competition online landscape 👉 www.speedcurve.com/blog/brand-p... #webperf #ux #pagespeed
speedcurve.com
SpeedCurve | The speed of trust: How slow pages hurt your brand
In a competitive market, page speed is as important as your design and content.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 19/02/2026
Web performance metrics aren’t just engineering diagnostics. They’re large-scale UX research. They reveal friction, bias, and experience gaps usability studies alone can’t see. I wrote about this intersection: www.ethangardner.com/posts/web-pe... #ux #webperf
ethangardner.com
Performance is UX: What Web Performance Optimization Can Do for UX Researchers
Understand how web performance metrics connect to UX research outcomes.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 30/01/2026
How I use Web Components with ShadowDOM in a Design System. www.ethangardner.com/posts/shadow...
ethangardner.com
How I Use ShadowDOM with Web Components in Design Systems
Web components and CSS custom properties can create a future-proof design system with maximum flexibility
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 05/01/2026
Back to work tomorrow. This is my reflection on 2025. www.ethangardner.com/posts/2025-y...
ethangardner.com
2025 Retrospective
What I learned and did in 2025
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Stoyan Stefanov @stoyan.me · 03/12/2025
Web performance calendar day 3 when @ethangardner.com shows us how to train a ML model on synthetic perf metrics and use it to predict approximate field data before a page/feature goes live. calendar.perfplanet.com/2025/traffic...
calendar.perfplanet.com
Traffic Modeling Using Machine Learning
When I explain the difference between lab (aka synthetic) and field data to people, one of the things I mention is that the lab allows for testing under repeatable, controlled conditions. Each test ru...
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Alex Russell @infrequently.org · 21/11/2025
How's the mobile CPU landscape evolving? Thanks to process node improvements, a mid-range Android from 2025 is (finally!) as fast as 2017's iPhone 8, but a low-end (~$100) smartphone isn't yet as speedy as a decade-old iPhone 6s.
Geekbench 6 single-core scores over time at 4 price points:

 - fastest iOS
 - fastest Android
 - mid-tier Android
 - low-end Android
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Sergey Chernyshev @sergeyche.dev · 06/11/2025
My talk at Performance.sync() pre-conference meetup organized by @mozilla.org in Amsterdam last week: www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cv6...
youtube.com
7 Levels of a Web Performance Journey - Sergey Chernyshev - performance.sync() 2025
YouTube video by Web Conferences Amsterdam
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 31/10/2025
If you are looking for the slides from my PerfNow 2025 talk, Web Performance Allies, they are at speakerdeck.com/ethangardner...
speakerdeck.com
Web Performance Allies - PerfNow 2025
Image credits: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:TAR_Detour_clue.png https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carach_Angren_M%C3%A9an_22_08_200&hellip;
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Riccardo Margiotta @riccardomargiotta.co.uk · 30/10/2025
Just like web performance work, accessibility winds up being less expensive the earlier you implement it. Build accessibility in from the start, rather than bolting it on - make it part of the process. @marcysutton.com #webperf #PerfNow #a11y
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performance.now() conference @perfnow.nl · 04/09/2025
performance.now() is coming! @ethangardner.com will offer practical tips on presenting engineering data as a competitive advantage, a revenue driver, and a tool for enhancing user experience to help make performance optimization a strategic priority. perfnow.nl/speakers.htm...
perfnow.nl
performance.now(); 30th and 31st of October, Amsterdam
On 30th and 31st of October, 2025, the sixth edition of performance.now() will take place in Amsterdam—a single track conference, covering today’s most important web performance insights.
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performance.now() conference @perfnow.nl · 01/09/2025
performance.now() is coming! The night before the conference, 29th of October, @mozilla.org organises performance.sync(), the pre-meetup where you can meet your peers to mentally prepare for two days of information overload. They're also looking for a few people to present. luma.com/ziykhh4y
luma.com
performance.sync() 2025 · Luma
performance.sync() is a meet-up taking place on the evening before the performance.now on Wednesday October 29th! We are looking for speakers! Submit your…
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 25/06/2025
Come see me in Amsterdam! This lineup is loaded with great speakers in the #webperf community, and it's going to be a good time.
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PerformanceObserver @performanceobserver.dev · 17/04/2025
The videos from our latest episode are up! Come catch a pair of great talks by @verlok.bsky.social and @ethangardner.com! www.youtube.com/playlist?lis... #webperf
youtube.com
Episode 3 | PerformanceObserver - YouTube
In this episode we have Andrea Verlicchi walking us through some real-world case studies of optimizing INP, and Ethan Gardner will discuss how to make allies...
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PerformanceObserver @performanceobserver.dev · 27/03/2025
Hey folks, the next episode of PerformanceObserver is now scheduled for 16 April with @verlok.bsky.social and @ethangardner.com ! See all details at performanceobserver.dev including add to calendar links with the join instructions. #webperf
performanceobserver.dev
PerformanceObserver: A virtual web perf meetup
Join the PerformanceObserver virtual performance meetup to get all the latest web performance news and hang out with the community.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 17/03/2025
What is everyone using for revenue reporting and invoicing for consulting and freelance work these days?
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 10/03/2025
If this isn't a testament to nature, I don't know what is.
Mountains and their reflection off of Lake Mcdonald in Glacier NP.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 26/02/2025
For the last year, I've been ramping up on AI. If I was to start my learning journey today, these are some of the resources I'd use. www.ethangardner.com/posts/ai-onr...
ethangardner.com
AI On-ramp for Curious Developers
My Journey with AI and how you can get started
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 21/02/2025
Good things are happening with URLPattern. I've been waiting for it to land in places beyond Chromium- based browsers for a while now. urlpattern.spec.whatwg.org
urlpattern.spec.whatwg.org
URL Pattern Standard
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 12/02/2025
I feel like a lot of people sleep on console commands beyond log. Group, table, and trace are all things I use regularly. Also, debugger is super 😎. I don't usually reach for what my IDE provides, but I might start after watching this www.youtube.com/live/gFcR8J9...
youtube.com
Debug Like a Pro: JavaScript Edition
YouTube video by JetBrains
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Harry Roberts @csswizardry.com · 07/02/2025
CSS is render- but not parser-blocking. This means that while a browser is fetching CSS, it is permitted to continue parsing the rest of your HTML but not render it. HOWEVER! If you’re not careful, you can inadvertently end up in parser-blocking territory.
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Ethan Gardner @ethangardner.com · 04/02/2025
I installed pyenv today and had trouble building on Ubuntu. Lo and behold there was this helpful gist that had exactly what I needed: gist.github.com/drconopoima/...
gist.github.com
Pyenv Wiki Common Build Problems when it was useful
Pyenv Wiki Common Build Problems when it was useful - pyenv-common-build-problems-useful.md
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Firefox Performance @firefoxperformance.bsky.social · 01/02/2025
Alexander Krizhanovsky is now talking about scheduling HTTP streams fosdem.org/2025/schedul... fosdem.org/2025/schedul... #webperf #fosdem
Alexander Krizhanovsky presenting a slide with the title “http streams” in front of an audience.
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Sarah Drasner @sarahedo.bsky.social · 26/01/2025
✍️ I did an explainer on the CPU and GPU and how they coordinate tasks between them. Going to a series on rendering💥
Drawing of expanded view of the GPU and CPU, with explanations for both and a brief description of how they coordinate
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