Firefox 57 delays requests to tracking domains
Much of this discussion is missing the point that the stated goal of this change is actually to _help_ sites that use lots of tracking scripts, not to penalize them.<p>It has become common to use so many tracking scripts that the perceived page load time (time to display/interactivity) is actually significantly slowed down. I actually first installed an ad-blocker myself when I realized some sites were taking like 5+ seconds to load, and loaded quicker with the ad-blocker. (But this change isn't a _blocker_ of scripts, it's trying to change order and timing of execution to speed up page load while _keeping_ the scripts).<p>The intent of this change is to delay load of those scripts (which are already being loaded with code that loads them async, that is, without spec guarantees of load order or timing) until after the page UI is loaded and operative, to _improve_ perceived load time.<p>I'm not sure if people are missing this point, or don't believe the stated goal and think it's secretly a plan to hurt these sites instead. I believe the stated goal. (whether they like or hate that idea!) As the OP says though, there are certain pages that _may_ be unintentionally harmed by the change, if they were relying on quick load of scripts that they should not have been relying on because they were already being loaded async (that is, with no guarantees of load order or timing, already).<p>If this ends up being a non-trivial number of pages, and those pages/tracking frameworks don't fix themselves to accomodate, then I predict the change will be considered unsuccessful and unfortunately rolled back.<p>It is meant to _help_ pages that use a lot of tracking scripts, not hurt them. Although I guess the assumption is that actual load time of interactivity is prioritized over making sure your tracking scripts are in immediately. If site owners actually prefer to slow down their pages non-trivially in order to guarantee tracking scripts immediately, then I guess they wouldn't see it as help. shrug.<p>I think the OP author is probably regretting his post title. It maybe should have been "Firefox 57 speeds up load time to interactivity of pages with lots of tracking scripts", heh.