Protobuf on Rails: How a "Simple" API Forced Me to Rethink JSON
TL;DR I reduced my geo-points API payload from 7.37 MB (uncompressed) to 2.74 MB (gzipped Protobuf) — a 63% reduction in wire transfer — and improved client-side parsing by 40%. This made our interactive map usable on mobile networks and drastically improved the experience for tens of thousands of…