Well, the reason why external files are supposed to help is that, when they are in the page, each visitor loads a page with all the insides. If the files are external, then they are cached.

Of course, if every page is cached, then, indeed, using most of the code in the page and caching it might work (if you cache blocks, not entire dynamic pages, which refresh often, anyway).

The premise with Yahoo seems to be the last case: they are probably using page cache and don't need extra HTTP requests. I'll try to find the piece, but the general consensus seems to place CSS/JS in external files for not too high traffic websites.

Pretty amazing about the font size. You know, there was a study, identifying the most readable font. It appeared to be Verdana 12px (or equivalent, since we may not use px for fonts).

I'll try reducing the font size to 10-11px and see what happens. Although making the page narrower seems a more feasible suggestion. Options to change font size on the site might work, too, I guess.

Unfortunately, in either way (font too small or too large), I won't be able to determine the reason why people have left the page: due to frustration or fast reading. Any ideas about this/

Edit: this survey identified that the most readable fonts are Arial 12pt and Verdana 10pt. I'll play with them some time and see what happens.

Thanks for the heads up!