95%+ browsers used today support gzip compression of text content (HTML, CSS etc) yet many large websites (like RTE.ie) don't support this still. Not only is it great for users on 56k for example - sites will load much faster but the bandwidth used is much less thus saving the websites money. Also, if the website does use gzip compression but the browser does not support it, an uncompressed page will instead be sent instead so it does not cause a problem for users of non-supportive older browsers.

And while the server does need to process more due to the compression, server CPU time is cheaper than bandwidth at the moment and growing at a faster rate too. Using mod_gzip cuts the text down to 30% or so of it's original size and is well worth it. WhatsMyIP.org mod_gzip Test is a place to check websites if they support gzip compression or not and the savings that are or can be made with gzip enabled.

In some cases it's not used due to server-side caching, but it would make sense to compress more of the output on popular sites where possible

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