#### PerformanceNewsletter
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#### Issue 45
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#### Editor’s Note
We’ve been doing our best to relay the importance of performance throughout the lifespan of this newsletter. Today, we find ourselves living through the most critical exercise in speed in our lifetimes.
The speed of reporting, speed of research, speed of infection rates, speed of recovery, speed of reaction and preventative measures. Today, **speed is everything.**
With millions confined to their homes, the internet usage skyrockets, and has to be [curbed by streaming services](https://edition.cnn.com/2020/03/19/tech/netflix-internet-overload-eu/index.html) to prevent networks from collapsing. Suddenly, *even the vastness of the internet has limits*.
As we anxiously navigate this bizarre world, some things remain in our power: what will I do today to make the web more accessible and faster than it was yesterday?
[Stay safe.](https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019/advice-for-public)
— Karolina
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#### article
## Learn how fast the internet really is in the USA
A fascinating report on the state of connectivity in the United States, again showcasing that fast internet access is not by far evenly distributed. Accordingly to NACo’s research, **65% of counties have slower connections than the FCC standard** (which only equates to 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload).
[]()[Understanding the true state of connectivity in America →](https://www.naco.org/resources/featured/understanding-true-state-connectivity-america)
#### article
## Discover how fast variable fonts are
In her article, [Mandy Michael](https://twitter.com/Mandy_Kerr) explains the speed benefits of variable fonts. This new format allows multiple permutations (such as weight or style) of the same font to be included in a single file, which might introduce a reduction in requests and possibly file size.
[]()[The performance benefits of Variable Fonts →](https://uxdesign.cc/the-performance-benefits-of-variable-fonts-79af8c4ff56c)
#### article
## Prepare for mobile-first indexing in Google
In 2016, Google announced the intent to move to mobile-first indexing. While new websites are already indexed using a smartphone Googlebot, all sites will be switched to this method starting September 2020. It’s crucial to not only to check meta and structured data but also **focus on performance and accessibility on mobile devices.**
[]()[Announcing mobile-first indexing for the whole web →](https://webmasters.googleblog.com/2020/03/announcing-mobile-first-indexing-for.html)
#### tools
## Optimise your CSS Modules bundle output
If you’re using CSS Modules, [Jason Miller](https://twitter.com/_developit) has published an npm module that optimises the outputs of certain CSS loaders by entirely removing the potentially large CSS className mappings usually inlined into your bundle.
[]()[constant-locals-loader →](https://www.npmjs.com/package/constant-locals-loader)
#### article
## Understand the difficulty of maintaining speed
In his article, [Dave Rupert](https://twitter.com/davatron5000) outlines how preloading can quickly turn from a performance easy win to a headache of an additional 33 seconds of page load. Dave showcases how difficulty significantly rises between making one-off performance improvements and reliably maintaining good scoring.
[]()[Maintaining performance →](https://daverupert.com/2020/03/maintaining-performance/)
#### new in calibre
## What Calibre released last month
📚 **Release Notes: February**
Here’s our monthly roundup of what was released in February: redesigned Billing area to manage your plan and usage, Third Party detection time, CLI 3.0.2 and more.
🔜 **Budgets 2.0: **We’re working on completely overhauling performance budgets to provide clear context and direction on how to set them. With Budgets 2.0, you will be able to see where your budgets are at quickly, and more importantly, which ones are at risk. Head to Release Notes to see a sneak peek.
[]()
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