An Interview with Andrew B. King
Web page optimization is about optimizing everything that goes into a Web page, including the text. In fact, text optimization is one of the most overlooked ways of speeding up Web sites. I see many a site with optimized graphics, but with HTML that is unoptimized, filled with comments, unused code, and whitespace. Compression can also be used to shrink the text (HTML, JavaScript, etc.) that you deliver to your impatient users.
Saila, Craig. Digital Web Magazine (2003). Design>Web Design>Usability