According to Google, making faster websites is beneficial both on the cost end (by reducing operating costs) and from the user experience’s point of view.

According to an internal study driven (and quoted) by Google, if a site responds slowly, visitors spend less time there.

While the importance of site speed, among many other factors is relatively small at this point (around 1%), leaving most sites unaffected, the aim proclaimed by Google, a half-second download time for a certain website seem to be beyond reach for many players on the internet.