Digital Home Thoughts - News & Reviews for the Digital Home

"While this is a follow-up to our original Web browser Grand Prix, we have also included some standards compliance testing along with enhanced memory benchmarks. We feel that even though these tests do not directly affect speed, they are crucial to overall performance. But don't worry, we'll separate those benchmarks from our speed tests in the conclusion, so you'll still get to find out which Web browser is the fastest when judged purely on raw speed."

Web Browsers have definitely become one of the major components of our Internet connected life. The concept is great: A single application or platform through which you can access the largest communications network and one of the largest data repositories in the world. Of course, that vision is being challenged with the rise of apps on the iPhone, Android, and Windows Phone 7 (if it ever truly comes out) but for now, it remains one of the most important parts of computing. While we all have our own preferences, I am impressed that the web browser market is a five horse race. Yes, I know there are many other browsers to choose from, but there are five web browsers that have an appreciable amount of the market. I think it just demonstrates how cut throat the market is. In many ways, it is trivial to change browsers (with the exception of extensions) and that means that each browser has to compete fiercely to stay relevant. In another year or two, we might see a different landscape altogether.

"As you can see, each browser has its strengths—even the most maligned browser in recent history. We took each of the five all-browser tests—start-up times, nine-tab loading, JavaScript, DOM/CSS, and memory use—and assigned a ranking to each contender. In the case of very close results, we assigned a "tie." In two cases—Internet Explorer on JavaScript and CSS, Safari on nine-tab loading—we had to assign zeros, though, obviously, each browser can perform those functions, but that's how it goes."

Does the speed of the browser really affect your choice? I mean, sure, if there is a significant difference like those measured in minutes, or even tens of seconds, but for most browsing, I have found most have a particular preference, logical or not. I would think that for browsers, the competition would be more for features than in speed. The tests seems reasonable and somewhat based on real world performance, though I have heard claims were some people load up hundreds of tabs for a single browser. I wonder what the performance metrics would be on that kind of scenario.

This is off topic for sites other than Digital Home Thoughts, but this video is just so darn cool, I wanted to share it with everyone. Worth noting is that it's loading the pages out of the cache, so this is a rendering test, not a "download speed test", but it's perfectly valid because download speeds will vary from location to location. Personally, I still use Firefox more than Chrome - at some point, browsers are "fast enough" at page rendering and further improvements can't be perceived. I value stability and usefulness more than sheer speed at rendering. What about you?

"What is a browser? was the question we (Google) asked over 50 passersby of different ages and backgrounds in the Times Square in New York. Watch the many responses people came up with."

That video is HILARIOUS. It just goes to show you how completely clueless most people are about the technology they use - though I have to admit I was surprised to see some of the younger people being just as clueless. It shows that technical knowledge is much less about age than it is about interest/desire to understand. And, frankly, most people aren't geeks and they don't care about how the technology works or even what it is that they're using. They'll typically only use something different or better if they're forced to - a new computer, a new operating system, etc.

The guy who said he uses the "big blue E" is pretty typical in my experience - though what surprised me was the confusion between a search engine and a browser. You'd think the fact that Internet Explorer says Internet Explorer everywhere would be a hint that the browser is called Internet Explorer. But people clearly pay more attention to what's going on INSIDE the browser - that's the experience they care about.

Yesterday, Google launched their own Web browser. Since this is pretty big news, I decided it was worth posting network-wide. Do we really need another browser? Before yesterday, my answer would have been no - I'm a very satisfied Firefox user, and Internet Explorer 8 is shaping up quite nicely. But after watching the 90 minute Google Webcast yesterday, I was very interested in with what Google had created. There's a great online comic that walks you through why Google created the browser, and what kinds of things were important to Google when creating Chrome. I think this comic is also how the browser was leaked before Google was ready to announce it. Read more...