GTmetrix is proud to announce mobile testing for your sites!

See how your website performs on an actual mobile phone and optimize your user’s experience on a wide variety of mobile devices.

Our mobile service is currently in beta, and so we are only offering mobile testing in our default Vancouver, BC. location and apologize in advance for any issues you might encounter.

Our mobile testing suite

We offer a few tools to help users optimize for mobile:

• Page Analysis with Mobile Specific Rulesets
  We use Google’s Page Speed ruleset with their prioritization for mobile devices.
• High Quality Video Capture
  Get real-time playback of your page loading on a mobile device. We offer full, high-quality video capture without impacting the results of your test.
• More Detailed and Complete HAR Files
  Our mobile HAR files include DNS lookup time, blocking time, window.onload time and DOM loaded time – more accurate than any other mobile HAR file out there. SSL traffic is also properly captured.

Combined with our existing GTmetrix tools, developers can ensure that their site performs the best it can on mobile devices!

How we did it

After an intense period of research and development, we were able to interface GTmetrix with actual Android phones (Galaxy Nexuses).

Utilizing a combination of HDMI adaptors, video capture cards and WiFi configurations, a customized script connects to the Chrome browser application on the phones via WiFi and generates a report that focuses on a specific rule-set tailored for mobile phones (Page Speed Mobile).

One of our Android phones in action

We’re not running simulated tests by restricting resolutions – we’re actually sending your URL to a real Android device!

Read more about our mobile features here »

Get Started With GTmetrix Mobile Testing

Since we’re still in Beta, we currently provide 2 devices for mobile analysis. You may experience a slight queue. PRO users however, will get higher priority for their mobile analyses.

As we mature the service, more devices for analysis as well as more device platforms (iPhones, other Android devices) are planned for the future as usage increases.

Best of all, it’s FREE for registered users! Log in to your GTmetrix account and give it a try. We’d love to hear your feedback!

The office is looking a little empty this Monday morning – undoubtedly many are still recovering from yesterday’s Sun Run. Like good Vancouverites we participated in this 10K mass event. We’ve been part of the Sun Run for 7 years now, this time with a team of 12.

This year’s Sun Run was themed blue and yellow to show support for Boston
(Source: Vancouver Sun)

Walking around this green and active City, it’s no surprise that the Sun Run has been characterized the largest 10k road race in Canada since its inception 28 years ago. It’s hard to catch a time of the day not seeing anyone running, biking, or walking around this beautiful city. This year the run attracted about 48,000 participants who took the challenge to run the “beautiful scenic course”.

The Sun Run has become a nice tradition here at Gossamer Threads, although always takes some of us by surprise (“What? The Sun Run is this Sunday? I better start training!”). This year’s record holder of our own little league is Michael with a time of 48:49.

As always the run brought out the best of our small team and “So, how fast did I run?” was everyone’s first question after reuniting at our downtown office. 6 of us crossed the finish line in less than an hour and we are pretty curious about the results of the other teams!

And as the best is saved for last, we rounded out the afternoon with a well-deserved menu at The Butcher & Bullock on West Pender Street. What a great way to spend a Sunday!

Enjoying Lunch With the Sun Run Crew

We’re happy to announce that Gossamer Threads successfully completed an SSAE 16 (US) audit, as well as its Canadian and international counterparts, the CSAE 3416 and ISAE 3402. Often used by companies offering cloud hosting and software as a service, these audits represent an assurance to our clients that we’re meeting the standards and workflow we advertise.

What is SSAE 16?

SSAE 16 stands for Statement on Standards for Attestation Engagements No. 16 and is accountant-speak for the examination of an organization’s systems, processes, and controls, and the issuance of an industry-standard report. The audit guidelines are set out by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants, and must be performed by a third party certified accountant or accounting firm. The third party looks at the information we give our clients with regards to security and control systems, and gives an opinion about the quality and accuracy of the information being claimed.

Because we like to do things properly, we chose to go with a “Type 2″ audit, which means we were monitored during a specific time period (September 2012 to February 2013) instead of just one specific date (Type 1).

What’s on the audit?

Since criteria for SOC1 reports are not defined by default, we worked with the CPA firm Auditwerx to identify categories and standards important to our field. We settled on information technology, application development, hosting, and our transaction processing systems as key criteria.

The auditor performed a physical inspection of our office and data center, interviewed our senior staff, and documented their work with numerous photos of our facilities and screenshots of our websites and workflow documents. Our data center as well as our company and human resource policies have been examined with a focus on security as well as proper environment for the servers.

The result: The auditor confirmed that our stated controls and processes are fully in place and designed effectively.

What does that mean for you?

Many of our clients use our platforms and applications for business-critical purposes and need to be sure that their information is secure. With the audit focusing on security and proper server storage, our clients can rest assured that we are holding to the standards we advertise in security, personnel, and server infrastructure. Their valuable data will be kept at the highest levels of integrity when working us.

With Gossamer Threads, you know that the label and the service are the same. Interested in working with an up-front hosting company? Let’s talk.