July 2011 Summaries

On July 29, 2011, Matthew Prince announced that their platform had reached a significant milestone by serving over 10 billion page views in the last 30 days, powered by CloudFlare. These pages were viewed by approximately 250 million unique visitors, which accounted for more than 13% of worldwide internet traffic during that period. This number exceeds Twitter's unique visitor count and significantly surpasses Wikipedia's page views over the same timeframe. The platform is now handling an average of over 25,000 requests per second.

On July 28, 2011, Google launched a new service called Google Page Speed aimed at making the web faster. The author, Matthew Prince, is pleased that other companies like Google are working on improving web performance and security. He mentions that when CloudFlare first suggested using DNS changes to improve these aspects, many people were skeptical, but now there's more interest in their services. Some users have compared Google Page Speed with CloudFlare, and the author is satisfied with how they compare. The possibility of offering Google Page Speed as a CloudFlare App is also mentioned. For those interested in Google Page Speed but not yet given access, CloudFlare offers its service for free regardless of bandwidth and is open to signups from websites of any size.

On July 28, 2011, David Zakur discussed the impact of celebrity social media posts on websites. He mentioned that Justin Bieber, with millions of followers across Twitter and Facebook, can cause a significant traffic spike when sharing content like photos. This phenomenon is known as the "Bieber Effect." CloudFlare, a cloud-based service, helps websites handle such massive influxes by making them faster and more secure. Through its globally distributed CDN, it caches static content and manages serving this content to reduce server strain. The setup process for CloudFlare is quick and free, offering protection against sudden traffic spikes caused by influential figures on social media.

In 2011, Matthew Prince, co-founder of CloudFlare, shared how they developed their logo with the help of renowned brand identity designer Lindon Leader. The process involved understanding the company's vision and values, as well as receiving feedback from friends and advisors. Initially, a blue version of the logo was favored, but eventually, the current design with an orange cloud and custom font emerged. The logo has since become versatile and helped define CloudFlare's brand, even inspiring customers to wear it on t-shirts.

On July 27, 2011, Matthew Prince discussed the rapid growth of CloudFlare, which reached 100 million users in about seven months after launch and continued to grow exponentially. He compared CloudFlare's platform to other successful platforms like YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, noting that they all enhance other people's content. Prince also mentioned a conversation with an experienced engineer who described CloudFlare as the "YouTube for websites." The company is planning to launch new features to address ongoing challenges on the Internet.

On June 1st, 2011, Cloudflare introduced its first app, VigLink, marking the beginning of a series of apps designed to integrate various services for website owners. By July 22nd, they had launched more than 14,000 installs across a diverse ecosystem. The company is working on refining their process and improving live apps while preparing for new releases. They are also developing more documentation, code examples, test accounts, screencasts, and other tools to support developers and prospective partners. Cloudflare plans to introduce additional services such as image/video advertising and translation in the future.

The text discusses an issue with enabling SSL on Google AppEngine using custom domains. It explains that managing SSL certificates in cloud environments is challenging, as they are usually tied to a specific domain and IP address. The author mentions that many cloud providers do not support SSL or require users to use their subdomains for SSL-enabled connections. To solve this problem, CloudFlare introduced a new feature called Host Override Header, which allows developers to enable SSL on custom domains hosted on AppEngine. This solution helps maintain session consistency between HTTP and HTTPS connections and offers potential opportunities beyond SSL support.

On July 20, 2011, Matthew Prince discussed how Google began notifying users with malware on their PCs and linking them to tools for cleanup. This is an important step in breaking the "cycle of malware," as infected computers are often used by cybercriminals to cause harm online. CloudFlare has also been working towards this goal, helping websites protect themselves from being compromised and informing infected users about their issues. The collaboration between Google and CloudFlare aims to clean up infected PCs and reduce the prevalence of malware-related problems on the internet.

The text discusses the integration of CloudFlare with e-commerce websites and addresses common concerns and steps that need to be taken after installation. Immediate steps include allowlisting Cloudflare's IP addresses, restoring original visitor IPs, setting up SSL, and managing subdomains. It also answers frequently asked questions about dynamic content, IP geolocation, and caching mechanisms used by CloudFlare. The author emphasizes that thousands of e-commerce sites use CloudFlare to enhance their online sales performance.

The author, David Zakur, writes a blog about wine at OneFortyWines.com. He initially used a custom WordPress installation with Google Analytics but migrated to WordPress.com for easier management. However, he missed the analytics feature provided by Google Analytics and found it difficult to integrate with WordPress.com. The CloudFlare Apps feature allowed him to enable Google Analytics on his WordPress.com blog in just two minutes, providing continuity in tracking systems across multiple sites. This service is free and offers additional apps for site owners.

Matthew Prince shares his experience from 1992 when he was part of a team at Trinity College that built one of the first online-only magazines, which eventually gained popularity and led to bandwidth cost issues. This story resonates with many website owners who hope for their content to go viral but dread the resulting traffic spikes and unexpected costs. To address this issue, CloudFlare was created to eliminate both technical and billing concerns related to increased web traffic. The company buys bandwidth wholesale and establishes direct peering relationships to provide better pricing and service. Despite offering a free tier with basic features, CloudFlare plans to roll out more advanced paid tiers in the coming months.

CloudFlare is a content delivery network (CDN) that automatically caches static content such as JavaScript, CSS, and images for faster page loading times. Unlike traditional CDNs, CloudFlare requires no configuration upon sign-up. It can be used alongside other CDNs by adjusting the DNS settings in the CloudFlare account. The service is compatible with popular WordPress caching plugins like W3 Total Cache. While it does not cache dynamic content such as HTML or PHP, users can enable Development Mode to bypass the cache for immediate updates. CloudFlare offers a free CDN plan and additional paid plans and services.

In July 2011, Matthew Prince discussed the rapid growth of Cloudflare since its launch in September 2010. The company aimed to make websites faster and more secure with an affordable, user-friendly interface. Within ten months, over 10% of internet users experienced a better web experience due to Cloudflare's services. Initially, the company raised $2 million from Ray Rothrock at Venrock and Carl Ledbetter at Pelion Venture Partners in November 2009. After their public launch, they met Scott Sandell at NEA, who led a $20 million Series B round investment. The funding allowed Cloudflare to expand its network and hire talented employees to tackle the internet's most significant challenges.

CloudFlare provides an analytics dashboard for its users, offering insights into traffic data for websites on their network. Unlike Google Analytics, which uses beacon-based tracking and focuses on visitor behavior, CloudFlare tracks raw data about every request passing through its network. This allows it to provide metrics such as hits and bandwidth usage that cannot be obtained from Javascript-based beacons. However, the two services differ in their approach to page views, with Google Analytics following a more traditional model while CloudFlare adheres to an industry standard that may overcount page views for AJAX-driven sites. Ultimately, both services have their strengths and can provide valuable insights when used together.