Overhead in each request / response. This, in essence, is what it boils down to.
Google...
GET http://www.google.com/ HTTP/1.1 : /x-ms-, image/jpeg, application/xaml + xml, image/gif, image/pjpeg, /X -MS-XBAP, /vnd.ms-Excel, /vnd.ms-POWERPOINT, /MSWord, /x -shockwave-flash,/ Accept-Language: en-US User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (; MSIE 7.0; Windows NT 6.1; WOW64; Trident/4.0; GTB0.0; SLCC2;.NET CLR 2.0.50727;.NET CLR 3.5.30729;.NET CLR 3.0.30729; Media Center PC 6.0; OfficeLiveConnector.1.4; OfficeLivePatch.1.3) Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate : Keep-Alive : www.google.com Cookie: xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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http://swortham.blogspot.com/2010/03/latency-requests-css-sprites-and-you.html
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