Doesn't Google do some user-agent sniffing for requests for their webfonts to optimize for the target platform?
I guess you would lose these optimizations by hosting them yourself.
I guess you would lose these optimizations by hosting them yourself.
As all files are the exact same ones Google is hosting in the wild, I don't feel like you'll lose any optimizations (which might be the case when using font generation services like FontSquirrel).
I'll look into that and maybe provide some additional fonts on a per OS/Browser basis to download. The main problem is that it's impossible to have a static CSS snippet AND provide different files per User-Agent (a javascript solution might help). So until I've found a solution to this, you are absolutely right, these optimizations will get lost on local use!
For reference: I'm currently using the following User-Agents for fetching the font file urls from Google's CSS: http://pastebin.com/5SZ1Q6kj
Anyway, thanks for your service, bookmarked... (I've been thinking of doing something similar). Good luck with finding a solution to this problem...