I can't make any specific suggestions about which js package(s) to use, except for what we've said should happen, which is that the first image should display immediately with subsequent ones being cached in the background. I don't think you have a big issue on your site's main page though.



Absolutely. However, if speed is important to you, spend some type optimizing the images with the Save For Web feature in Photoshop or other similar tools to see how much quality you can keep while trying to squeeze the file size. You might save a few K here and there which may help people with slower connections. Just balance the time you take on this with what you perceive to be the payback.

I don't think you have anything to worry about with regards to the speed of your site in relation to the other you linked. I don't think the other site loaded appreciably faster on my internet connection. I'll also say that the other site puzzled me with the amount of grain in the majority of the images displayed. Maybe puzzled isn't strong enough a word though. It put me off. So did all the Flash content. And music when you go to the main page. Fail. Not to mention the blog isn't integrated with the rest of the site. Meh.

One thing you may be concerned about with regards to speed however is where your potential clients are coming from. I suppose it doesn't really matter if the site loads quickly for me here in Canada when all your clients will be accessing it from the same ISP you're checking from. And potentially seeing whatever you're evaluating as slowness. If you have the opportunity you may consider copying your site to a different host and running some benchmarks.