Javascript has been on my mind. I had a fairly large sized javascript project a month ago and I currently have something smaller going and I’ve been using NoScript plugin for Firefox for a couple of months now. Funny enough, I installed a javascript blocking extension mere weeks before getting a javascript-exclusive contract job. It always seems to work that way.
It’s NoScript, though, that has made me more aware of javascript usage. Seeing it in action is enlightening because it’s a very good visualization of just how much cross-domain javascript is being executed on any given website. Using javascript to give your site some specific functionality is perfectly fine. I’ll often temporarily allow that (sometimes I have to because there are no javascript disabled alternatives) but I will never allow all those cross-domain scripts to run. Most of those are for pointless little widgets that do nothing but clutter a site and user tracking and cross-site embed of third party content (often ads.) I do not need these things. They are prone to be abused. I block them.
Seeing the blocked content lists in NoScript inspired me to make a simple visualization of (mostly cross-domain) javascript usage amongst popular weblogs (as is seen in the image above). Seeing TechCrunch in there still makes me laugh.
Anyway, keeping in line with that I removed my del.icio.us network status embed code, removed the legacy javascript I was linking to and removed Objecty. Objecty was a script that I used to embed flash content dynamically but it worked half the time, often produced weird errors in my access logs and added a considerable bloat (well over 100kb). It’s gone now. Things should run smoother as a result of it.
But I’m not getting rid of Google Analytics. I need my vanity, even if I block it myself.
