All sites are improvable. But you’d expect that the biggest sites on the planet would score highest, close to perfection. After all, they are the best practice, right? They have the smartest brains, the most money, the biggest expertise. Dammit, they even created parts of the internet, just as we know it. So, as best practice, should be as closed to perfection?

Wrong.

They are far from perfection, including the perfection that THEY defined! Including Google, Amazon, Facebook, Yahoo, Apple, Live and so on..

Example 1: Page speed results

– measured with Google Page Speed Test Tool: http://developers.google.com/speed/pagespeed/insights/. Conclusion: Do what the priest tells you, not what the priest does.:)

Example 2: W3C Markup Validation:

http://validator.w3.org/ Amazon is the creepiest…

Example 3: Mobile versions (or at least responsive layouts).

Check out Apple how it looks on its own device – iPhone – you have to have good vision.

So, just use your common sense when it comes to optimization. At some point, there is just a trade-off you must do in order to reach your objectives. Perfection is utopia. 🙂

Later edit: Some nice code that will increase your Google Page Speed grade by 10 pp at least: