However, for web surfers this is not the only cause of delays. In this age of instant information the slightest delay is sometimes noticeable. We can become impatient with a 30 second download delay from a web server even though it might be saving us a 3 hour trip to the mall or library. That 30s delay may well be caused by the sheer complexity of creating the page requested. Maybe you've asked for a database to be searched or perhaps the server you're talking to is very popular and is overworked.
Delays are almost inevitable.
Strangely, some argue that delays are for other people, and that if you use their products you can reap the benefit of state of the art technology that's able to side-step delays. We're talking web-accelerators. Since there's some variations in what some vendors consider to be web-accelerators we need to define them for the context of this article. If we were to believe the marketing hype of the web-accelerators creators and vendors then we'd be looking at the Net equivalent of the 'science' of alchemy. They'd have us believe that the web is only slow because we're not using it quickly enough.