Final answer:
Web caching improves Web response time, reduces load on origin servers, saves operational costs, and enables efficient content delivery. It does not provide more accurate information due to the potential of serving outdated cached data.
Step-by-step explanation:
The practice of Web caching is a strategy employed to improve the performance and efficiency of web services. Web caching involves storing copies of web content on a server that is closer to the user, reducing the distance that data must travel, and consequently, the time it takes for the content to be delivered to the user's web browser. There are several key reasons for applying Web caching:
- Web caching improves Web response time by serving content from a closer source, thereby reducing latency and page load times for the user.
- It helps to reduce the load on the origin servers, as cached content means that the server has to process fewer requests directly, which can save operation costs related to bandwidth, and capacity management.
- Since Web caching serves duplicate content to multiple requests, it also helps in situations where multiple users are requesting the same information, ensuring that the content delivery is more efficient.
However, it is important to note that caching does not necessarily provide more accurate information, as cached data might be outdated. Rather, it's about improving efficiency and reducing latency. Likewise, caching does not reduce the use of server's own cache or memory; instead, it offloads requests to the cache system to prevent overloading the server. Lastly, stored data from databases and Web services can indeed be costly, and caching can help minimize these costs by reducing the need for repeated data retrievals from the original source.