Okay Geek Farm
Browser Speed Tests - IE9, Chrome 11, Firefox 4 and Opera 11
Brandon Davenport
It’s been a battle ever since the Internet was born — who can make the Internet work the best for everyone? When it comes to usability and popularity, it really boils down to two things — speed and standards compliance. Some browsers are great at it, and some choose to half-ass it, but one thing is true, geeks want the best browser, so lets find out which one it is!
Summary and Breakdown of tests
The chart above outlines Javascript performance, which is one of the most important factors when it comes to speed. Almost every single website on the planet uses Javascript in some shape or form, so it’s important that a browser can rip through Javascript without any trouble — Chrome seems to kill at this.
Another area of importance is how fast the browser can load up from a “cold start” (first time loading). Nobody wants to boot their computer, and have to wait half a minute for their browser to start, and maybe that’s why Internet Explorer users play solitaire? — Joking aside, Opera, Firefox and Chrome dominate this area.
Read more speed tests — Life Hacker’s fantastic article
Internet Explorer is dead, Firefox could be replacing it
When you look at the charts and stats, Internet Explorer 9 really seems to suck pretty hard. I’ve used the browser for weeks, and I can’t stand another second of it. It feels cheap and it doesn’t impress me at all — Internet Explorer is dead to me, as it is to a lot of people, but once Internet Explorer is wiped from existence, who will replace it’s spot?
If you look at Firefox historically, it has been nothing but top-notch. It’s blown every benchmark to shreds and it has amassed a huge audience of millions — but just as Microsoft did, Mozilla is riding on their success, and it shows in their work. Firefox 4 came in 4th place on Life Hacker’s benchmarks, when it should have come first. I really feel that Firefox is slipping into the rabbit hole IE fell into years ago, which is being successful and not needing to innovate (and I don’t mean new features, I mean the actual “browsing” part).
It’s the cycle of the tech world I guess. Successful companies get big, and they decide they don’t need to try anymore because they’ve already made it. The smaller companies wow us with cool new stuff, the big companies try to copy it and people start to celebrate the true pioneers, as the big guys get left on the sidelines with only old people using their products. I really don’t care who owns the browser market — may the best browser win!
