Is there are conceivable reason why some of the websites I try to access go infernally slow while others dont?

[Benjamin H]

Yahoo and facebook are pretty major sites, hosted on some major servers. It would take a pretty big occurrence to slow them down.

If you are using dial-up, or Satellite internet there can be significant performance bottlenecks if you aren't configured properly especially on secured sites (Those starting with HTTPS://) If this is the case check with your ISP... most likely the problem is with your MTU Threshold.

Another issue could be caching. Try emptying your cache. (In Internet Explorer go to Tools --> Delete Browsing History --> Delete Temporary Internet Files)