ReadWriteWeb

The nginx Web server and reverse proxy server has already posted impressive numbers in the Web server market as a small open source project. Now the project's creator, Igor Sysoev, is taking a run at turning nginx into a company. Will nginx shake things up?

Apache rules the roost when it comes to Web server market share, no doubt. But nginx is coming up fast. For those not familiar, nginx is a high performance Web server and reverse proxy server. It got its start as a project for Russian search engine Rambler (where Sysoev was previously employed), with an initial release in 2004.

SPDY is a hypertext protocol developed by Google as an alternative/compliment to HTTP. It improves the performance of modern websites by adding a few features such as multiplexed requests, prioritized requests and compressed headers. You can read our previous coverage for more information.

How can you take advantage of SPDY on your own site? So far, only Google Chrome (versions 6.0 and up) support SPDY, so you'll need to support two protocols: SPDY for Chrrome, and HTTP for everything else. You'll also need to automatically switch between the two protocols depending on the browser your visitors are using.

Strangeloop Site Optimizer now does just that.

Google has just announced that it is working on a new protocol that will minimize latency and speed up the Web experience for users. SPDY (pronounced "speedy") is not meant to replace HTTP, the protocol that allows Web servers and browsers to talk to each other today, but it does augment HTTP. The new protocol incorporates features like multiplexed streams, request prioritization and HTTP header compression. Google has already developed a prototype Web server and a version of Google Chrome with built-in SPDY support.