Tell HN: If you use Google Web Fonts your site loads much slower in China

  • Yes, yes, yes. Not only Google Fonts, and not only China.

    Jurisdictions

    Anywhere where internet filtering is done leads to the risk that non-self-hosting (i.e. giving responsibility for delivery to a 3rd party) leads to a denial or degradation of service. This might even be somewhere in your neighborhood.

    3rd parties:

    Avoid CDNs (or run your own CDN) unless you only care about delivery to where you are/where places similar to you are.

    Fonts: Self-host, or just use a stack of commonly installed fonts.

    Analytics: Google Analytics is useless when Google is disrupted. Got visitors from China/other? Your analytics don't show them. Use something like Piwik that can be self hosted [and leave you in control of your data].

    Media: Link to a picture or video? Self host, again. Multiple media hosts are blocked across multiple jurisdictions.

    Anything else: Self-host if you care about delivery. Use 3rd parties when you're happy to not have delivery happen in cases that are felt not important enough to care about.