The latest update to Ident Engine includes a number of performance improvements. The first is the use of CSS sprites to display website icons. Ident Engine can make a lot of web connections which are often queued by the browsers. Grouping all the icons into a single file helps with download speeds and improves the redraw of the HTML pages.

Icons drawing tests

The Ident Engine JavaScript files are quite large so I have compressed them using Yahoo’s yuicompressor. This has reduced the files sizes by over 20%.

I have also added a number of new social media sites:

• 43places.com
• blippr.com
• cliqset.com
• joost.com
• netvibes.com
• plurk.com
• soup.io
• smugmug.com
• twitpic.com
• ustream.tv
• viddler.com
• wordpress.com
• live.xbox.com
• xing.com
• profiles.yahoo.com
• yiid.com