The internet may be an immediate medium, but that doesn’t necessary mean that it’s fast. Compuware Gomez has surveyed business sites across the world wide web to find the fastest in specific verticals, and some of the results might have you asking “Who?”.
Winners in Gomez’ 2010 survey were measured on response time, availability and consistency. To the surprise of no one, big names took the top spots in their specific categories: CBS News topped Media, United Health took Health Information, and Delta dominated Travel – Airlines (JetBlue got a special mention for its Mobile site, however). The Banking category saw some surprising names (Branch Banking and Trust, Regions Bank and Capital One, with Fidelity leading Brokerage sites), and Retail found itself split between QVC and Newegg instead of larger companies like Amazon.
If the idea of timing response to clicks seems a little too OCD to you, Compuware Gomez has a good argument for why it’s important to companies: Surveys have shown that around 32% of consumers will abandon a website if it takes more than 5 seconds to load, and 74% of users find themselves more likely to buy something if response time improves from 8 seconds to 2. In other words: to every site whose name doesn’t head up this list – It’ll cost you.
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