On the PHPClasses.org blog there's a new post looking at Google's latest optimization offering, mod_pagespeed, and how it can help the performance of your applications (and if it's even worth using).

One of the initiatives on which Google has invested to help Web developers making their sites faster is Page Speed. Basically Page Speed is an extension for the Firefox browser that can evaluate a loaded Web page to determine aspects that can be changed to improve the page load speed. [...] Mod_PageSpeed can help you by saving some time and eventually lower the technical knowledge barrier necessary to put optimization efforts in practice. Basically Mod_PageSpeed is module for Apache 2.2 Web server. It can automatically analyze each page that is served and perform some of the recommended optimizations on the fly.

He talks about some of the things the mod_pagespeed component can help with including cache optimization, minimizing round trip times, minimize the payload size and optimize the browser rendering. He does express some concerns about using it in his sites, however. Things like possible bugs in the first release, the differences in optimization between it and the Firefox plugin and its cookie handling.