One of the best compliments I've gotten about Jottings is that it just feels fast. Not just the interface—though we've obsessed over that—but specifically how quickly images load when you post them.
When you upload a photo to your microblog, it doesn't just sit on some server gathering dust. It travels to the edge of the internet, positioned strategically across the globe so that someone reading your post in Tokyo gets your image at nearly the same speed as someone in London. This isn't magic. It's CDN delivery, and it's one of those behind-the-scenes decisions that quietly makes Jottings better.
Let me explain why this matters and how we built it.
The Problem With Centralized Storage
When I started building Jottings, I had to make a choice: where should images live?
The obvious answer—throw everything on a traditional server somewhere—works fine until it doesn't. If your server is in Oregon and a reader is in India, that image has to travel thousands of miles over the internet. It gets routed through multiple networks, crosses multiple borders, and waits in various queues. By the time it arrives, it's been 2-3 seconds. For a image that should take 100 milliseconds.
That delay adds up. Every image on your site, especially if you post a lot of photos, becomes a bottleneck. Pages feel sluggish. Readers bounce. Your words never reach their full audience because the experience is frustratingly slow.
But there's a better way.
Meet Cloudflare R2
Cloudflare R2 is what we use for Jottings image storage, and it's been a revelation. R2 is object storage (like AWS S3, but better designed for actual humans), but the magic happens in how it's distributed.
When you upload an image to Jottings, here's what happens:
You upload from your device - Your browser sends the image directly to Cloudflare's network, not some distant data center. This is fast by default because Cloudflare has presence in 310+ cities worldwide.
Your image gets stored - The file lands in R2, but importantly, it's automatically accessible from Cloudflare's global edge network. You don't need separate CDN infrastructure.
Readers get the fast version - When someone views your post, their browser requests the image from a Cloudflare edge server near them. If it's cached there, it's delivered in milliseconds. If not, it's fetched once and cached for future requests.
The clever part: all of this is transparent. You just upload. We handle the rest.
Why This Matters for Your Microblog
Speed isn't just nice-to-have anymore. It's expected. Readers with slow connections—and there are more of them than you'd think—will literally leave your site if images take too long to load. Google's algorithms penalize slow sites. Your beautiful photography never gets appreciated because the experience is frustrating.
With Cloudflare R2 and edge caching, we've solved this:
90% of the world gets your images in under 500ms - Most readers won't notice a difference between "instant" and "nearly instant," but their brain knows the difference. The page feels alive.
Mobile readers benefit the most - People browsing on 4G or worse get hit hardest by slow CDNs. Edge caching means they're not waiting for a transatlantic hop just to see your photo.
You don't pay for the privilege - This infrastructure sounds expensive (and it is), but we've negotiated R2 pricing so it's affordable even for sites with thousands of images. You upload, we handle it.
The Details (If You Care)
When you post a photo, we're doing a few optimizations automatically:
Client-side resizing - Your 12MB phone photo gets shrunk to 1200px max width before upload. Still beautiful on any screen, but a fraction of the file size.
Format optimization - Modern image formats like WebP cut file sizes roughly in half compared to JPEG. Your readers get the best version their browser supports.
Cache headers - Edge servers cache your images for 30 days (or longer, depending on how frequently you update). Repeat visitors get instant delivery because the image never leaves the edge server.
Timestamp cache busting - If you replace an image, we automatically add a timestamp so the new version is delivered immediately, not the old cached version.
The result: your images arrive fast enough that readers are focusing on your words, not the wait.
A Tiny Philosophy
Building Jottings, I've noticed that the best technology disappears. You shouldn't think about where your images are hosted, or how they get to readers across the world, or whether someone in Australia will see your post at 3x the latency of someone in New York.
You should just post. The platform should handle the rest, invisibly.
That's why we spent time getting CDN delivery right. It's not a feature you'll brag about to friends. It's a detail that shapes how your microblog feels, whether you know it or not.
Your words deserve to travel fast.
Ready to share your writing with the world? Jottings gives you a beautiful microblog with all the infrastructure stuff already figured out. Get started free and your first site is ready in seconds.