Image optimization is using the most compressed (smallest file size) yet visually acceptable image in the proper file format for the specific role of the image.Why is Image Optimization needed?
There are two immediately prevalent reasons for image optimization: download time and bandwidth used. These may seem interrelated, but they are important for different reasons. Hardware storage space is a third reason that many only really apply in some cases.
Download time, though not as important as it was in the days of the 14.4k or 28.8k modem, is still a major factor in a sites success. A user made to wait is a user more likely to hit the back button on the website, or click on content that’s loads first instead of waiting for the entire page to load. Losing customers to a page that take 10 seconds to load is unacceptable. Though you may have a fast internet connection, others do not necessarily have these pleasantries, and there are certainly a significant number of dial up users on the internet and these users actually make up the majority in many developing countries.
Bandwidth is the hidden killer of the high traffic site. Plain and simple, bandwidth costs money, and not optimizing images wastes precious bandwidth that will end up costing you money, customers, or both. Most mainstream hosting plans have bandwidth caps that require extra payment for additional bandwidth if you go over your allotted bandwidth. The problem is that you may not be reachable when this happens and your site could be down until you pay additional funds or the bandwidth accrual period starts over again.
Now consider a large site that uses images primarily as its content. What if all the images on Flickr.com were not optimized. What if they were twice the file size compared to what they could be? For a site this large, not optimizing images has a serious impact on the infrastructure of the site. You need twice the data center storage capacity, electricity, data center engineers, part supply, and twice as much floor space to house your servers. Not optimizing images on a scale this large could mean thousands or millions of dollars of unecessary costs. You better believe Flickr.com has thought about it, and probably has some very advanced image resizing scripts in place.
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