Early Hints update: How Cloudflare, Google, and Shopify are working together to build a faster Internet for everyone

What this post added

This post details the integration and performance impact of Early Hints, a feature that leverages HTTP 103 status codes and Link headers to send resource hints to the browser before the full server response is compiled. It explains how Early Hints reduce server 'think time' by enabling the browser to preload resources and initiate preconnect connections. The post highlights Cloudflare's role in caching and emitting Early Hints from its edge network, reducing transit latency. It also presents lab testing results demonstrating significant improvements in First Contentful Paint (FCP) and Largest Contentful Paint (LCP) across various network conditions, and mentions collaboration with Google and Shopify for development and testing.