Why not to reference external javascript – jquery on googleapis failure

There is a school of thought that externally referencing Google for your js library helps lower load times and is the preferred method of inclusion. If the visitor has frequented another website calling the same file, it would be cached in the browser and forgo the 50-60kb download. While this is true, have you considered the risk of doing so? What if the unthinkable happens and Google has a hiccup. Well today was one of …