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Web Browser Grand Prix: Chrome 25, Firefox 19, And IE10

Web Browser Grand Prix: Chrome 25, Firefox 19, And IE10
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Important versions of Chrome and Firefox were released since our last installment, and though we're ready to leave Windows 7 behind, IE10 brings us back for one more round. Naturally, our exhaustive suite of benchmarks undergoes a massive update as well.

Here’s what has happened in the world of Web browsers since Which Web Browser Is Best Under Windows 8?:

Recent News And Events

11/13/12: The Release Preview of IE10 for Windows 7 is launched
11/18/12: Microsoft claims that WebKit is putting open Web standards in jeopardy
12/17/12: W3C Finalizes the Definition of HTML5
12/27/13: Mozilla intends to include H.264 support in Firefox 20
01/08/13: Mozilla releases Firefox 18 with new IonMonkey JavaScript engine
02/13/13: Opera announces that it’s switching to a Chromium base (WebKit and V8)
02/15/13: President of jQuery sees WebKit as another IE6 in the making
02/16/13: Opera Software purchases Skyfire Labs
02/22/13: Google releases Chrome 25
02/26/13: Microsoft releases IE10 for Windows 7
03/05/13: Chrome’s market share decreases slightly; Firefox, IE, and Safari benefit
03/06/13: EU imposes massive fine on Microsoft for missing Browser Ballot
03/07/13: Reports indicate that Google and Opera tipped the EU on Browser Ballot
03/07/13: Chrome, Firefox, and IE10 hacked at Pwn2Own, Opera and Safari not tested

Wow, what a couple of months, right? Firefox’s long-anticipated IonMonkey JavaScript engine finally landed, Microsoft and jQuery assail WebKit for its use of browser-specific extensions, Opera jumps on-board the Chromium bandwagon, and Google and Opera rat out Microsoft to the EU. Software people are always a riot.

Now, let’s quickly get acquainted with the today’s contenders before checking out the latest changes to our test suite.

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  • 2 Hide
    xintox , 14 March 2013 07:42
    Really? I thought you were better than that at Toms.
    The composite hardware acceleration scores is most likely the main reason why IE9/10 is so far behind Firefox and Chrome on performane. Yet, from what I can tell, this composite score is heavily influenced by the WebGL scores, which is exclusive to Chrome and Firefox.
    In that respect, MS has at some point stated that they do not even wish to support WebGL, as it represents a significant security risk, as it gives the browser close access to the computer hardware.
    Long story short, your methods of calculating performance scores heavily favors Chrome and Firefox as they are the only ones to implement support for WebGL.

    Additionally, I wish you would make it more clear how you arrive at your composite scores and of course the final Performance Index. How do you add numbers that are so varied in nature, without some method of normalizing the numbers?
  • 0 Hide
    finder , 14 March 2013 09:30
    now i know why i'm using firefox, because it's the best :p 
  • 1 Hide
    david__t , 14 March 2013 11:31
    +1 for xintox and I will add that Microsoft probably has lots of code in IE10 which comes under the banner of "Legacy support". I still hear people telling me that Firefox or Chrome work fine on *most* websites. So whilst they might be fast, there are still times when they fail.
  • 0 Hide
    treego14 , 15 March 2013 21:58
    Opera is better than Chrome on my PC and laptops. Chrome is clunky compared to Opera here. I don't think your numbers translate to a real-world browsing experience, at least not here.
  • 0 Hide
    Marty721 , 16 March 2013 18:50
    I dont know... but when i use chrome... i always get so much lags and 2 minute PC freezes, now i use firefox and i thank god for this browser.
  • -2 Hide
    EricLegge , 18 March 2013 16:28
    What about Apple's Safari? - I have used all of them and I dropped Chrome because it is Google spyware. I can't tell any difference in their speeds. They work pretty much alike on the sites that I visit. I would use Safari, but I often enter a url in the address bar and get the answer "Not found", so I have to use the Search facility instead that comes up with the site that Safari said was not found.
  • 0 Hide
    spotify95 , 5 April 2013 15:18
    As a bit of a note, I have just tested the Microsoft Maze Solver, and Firefox's completion times have increased since last time. (I know that Firefox has a bug with the Maze solver, but it might be fixed now?)
    My test results: Chrome 26 completion time: 2.3 seconds on 30x30 maze, 6.5 seconds on the 40x40 maze.
    Firefox gets completion times of 8.6 seconds and 24 seconds respectively - although Firefox is slower, it is definitely quicker than before (I remember when it took over a minute for Firefox to complete it!) This is on a Intel i5-480m processor, 6gb ram and windows 7 home premium.
  • 0 Hide
    Nicholas Tindall , 7 April 2013 18:56
    I'll stick with firefox.

    I still don't trust what google does with all that lovely data it acquires.