ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Link prefetching

Okay kiddo, let's talk about something called link prefetching. Have you ever noticed that sometimes when you click on a link, it takes a little while to load? Well, prefetching is a way to make that process faster by telling your computer to start loading the website before you even click on the link!

It's kind of like when you know you're going to want a snack later, so you start getting it ready ahead of time. Your computer does the same thing with link prefetching. It starts getting the website ready for you to look at before you even ask for it.

When you're surfing the internet, your computer is constantly looking for other web pages to add to its memory so it can load them faster next time. Link prefetching is one way your computer does this. Imagine your computer is like a friendly dog, and it's always running ahead of you to sniff out new things for you to see later.

But link prefetching isn't perfect. Sometimes, it can slow down your internet speed if it's trying to load too many web pages at once. So, it's important to use it carefully and only for websites that you use a lot and want to load really quickly.

In summary, link prefetching is a clever way to make websites load faster by getting your computer to start loading them before you even ask for them. Just be careful not to use it too much or it might end up slowing things down!
Related topics others have asked about: