PUBLIC MARKS from holyver with tags cache & network

A Web cache sits between one or more Web servers (also known as origin servers) and a client or many clients, and watches requests come by, saving copies of the responses — like HTML pages, images and files (collectively known as representations) — for itself. Then, if there is another request for the same URL, it can use the response that it has, instead of asking the origin server for it again.

Caching is a great example of the ubiquitous time-space tradeoff in programming. You can save time by using space to store results. In the case of websites, the browser can save a copy of images, stylesheets, javascript or the entire page. The next time the user needs that resource (such as a script or logo that appears on every page), the browser doesn’t have to download it again. Fewer downloads means a faster, happier site.

Vey useful links for cache control and browser behaviors * Explain of cache control in detail (very nice article! ) http://betterexplained.com/articles/how-to-optimize-your-site-with-http-caching/ * The State of Browser Caching: http://www.mnot.net/blog/2006/05/11/browser_caching * XMLHttpRequest caching: http://www.mnot.net/javascript/xmlhttprequest/cache.html