Facebook: What is akamaihd.net in url ?

So you use facebook? Well, everyone does. Ever seen the url of an image on facebook. Noticed something? If you haven't then open any image, right click on the image and open the image in new tab or copy the image url.

The image url would look something like this:

https://fbcdn-sphotos-d-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-ash3/t1.0-9/559061_433255360074095_1251688875_n.jpg

Wonder what is akamaihd.net doing in the url of a facebook image? Actually, your facebook images are not hosted on facebook server. Facebook uses Akamai Technologies to host images. Surprised? The reason behind using Akamai is that it is a CDN (Content Delivery Network). What a CDN doesn is that it takes your data (facebook images in this case) and place it on many servers all over the world. So whenever you open an image, a request is sent to nearest Akamai server which helps the images to load faster.

Imagine that your images are stored on facebook server (say in India) then Indian users will get the response much faster but for the users living in USA or any other far away place, it will take much time to get the response from the servers. CDN helps the users get their photo in the minimum time delay.

Akamai is promounced as "ACME". Looks familiar? If you have ever seen roadrunner then you also must have noticed that all the products used in that cartoon are from Acme Co. which fails when they are needed the most. Anyways, it has no relation with facebook. Don't think that just like Acme products, Akamai servers will stop working some day.

Wanted to know more about facebook url? Then don't forget to check our post on how you can find a facebook profile through the url of an image. Your feedback is valuable to us so don't forget to tell us about your views through the comments below.