Improve platform speed and search responsiveness

Implement performance optimizations including HTTP compression, enhanced caching strategies, reduced search debounce time, and optimized thumbnail generation.

Replit-Commit-Author: Agent
Replit-Commit-Session-Id: d7424866-83d1-4486-a212-ac12b4c7becf
Replit-Commit-Checkpoint-Type: full_checkpoint
Replit-Commit-Screenshot-Url: https://storage.googleapis.com/screenshot-production-us-central1/8cc42625-c1f5-4e43-99bd-77f2c4dedee2/d7424866-83d1-4486-a212-ac12b4c7becf/UCWygK2

client/src/components/search-header.tsx

@@ -26,11 +26,14 @@ export default function SearchHeader({
     };
   }, []);
 
-  // Debounced search function - waits 500ms after user stops typing
+  // Optimized debounced search - waits 300ms and filters short queries
   const debouncedSearch = useCallback(
     debounce((query: string) => {
-      onSearch(query);
-    }, 500),
+      // Only search if query is meaningful (2+ characters or empty for reset)
+      if (query.length === 0 || query.length >= 2) {
+        onSearch(query);
+      }
+    }, 300),
     [onSearch, debounce]
   );