- From: Michael Wexler <mwexler@nny.com>
- Date: Thu, 19 Mar 1998 22:34:56 GMT
- To: http-wg@cuckoo.hpl.hp.com
Gentlemen: As a web measurement analyst, one of my worst problems is dealing with caching. Why do we use the code 200 for everything? Why not design the spec in a graduated fashion: If browser has url in its local cache, it still sends a get request to the server, but an option says "I already have it, just letting you log the request". The success code is a 209, "user has non-expired data in cache". If a non local cache has the data, same system. The option can be different, and we can even use a different code (210), but for the most part, we should just let the 209 mean "cached request". This solves many problems: 1) path analysis of a user's visit 2) advertising requests (not perfectly, given the IAB's recent standards, but better than nothing for smaller sites) 3) pages per visit calculations are accurate 4) this is a minor increase in bandwidth compared to not sending the request at all, and is far superior to eliminating caching. Thanks for your time, Michael ___ Michael Wexler Director -- Research and Measurement mwexler@nny.com Nicholson | NY 295 Lafayette Street New York, NY 10012 212.274.0470 x178 212.274.0380 fax http://www.nny.com/
Received on Friday, 20 March 1998 07:37:33 UTC