Why do real-world servers prefer gzip over deflate encoding?

Question

We already know deflate encoding is a winner over gzip with respect to speed of encoding, decoding and compression size.

So why do no large sites (that I can find) s

Answer 1

Check this website for more information: http://web.archive.org/web/20120321182910/http://www.vervestudios.co/projects/compression-tests

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Deflate, per spec, is actually zlib (a compression format developed specifically for streaming content over the web)...which is a wrapper around deflate.

Internet Explorer, however, incorrectly implements HTTP 1.1 deflate (zlib) as raw deflate. So if your server sends correct HTTP 1.1 deflate (zlib) content to IE it chokes.

I've researched the topic a bit and it looks safe to ALWAYS send raw deflate to modern browsers...just make sure its is, in fact, raw and not zlib.

Check this article for more information > Gzip vs Deflate (zlib) revisited.

So I think that there is a good reason TO continue sending deflate over gzip.