Aptivate (then Aidworld) was founded in 2003 by a group of techies and aidworkers wrestling with the question: how can you make the web usable for relief workers in the field? The problem then was access to bandwidth and the cost of that access. We came up with loband - a free online service that simplifies web pages. It downloads them remotely, trims them down and returns them to the user in a lightweight format. It can offer a 5-10x reduction in bandwidth used. Fast forward 6 years and it's interesting how similar the story is...

Google just introduced Page Speed which looks like it could be a useful tool. Much like Yahoo's YSlow it sits on top of Firebug and tells you when you've done something naughty...