There have been a number of timed and anecdotal speed tests performed on Google Chrome over the last couple of days.
My personal testing: Chrome is the fastest browser I have ever used. More structured TechCrunch testing showed similar results: It’s fast. Here are what others came up with:
CNET agrees, but their approach was biased towards Google. Chrome came out way ahead in a suite of Javascript benchmark tests. The only problem is that Google hosts the tests and flat out says they tuned their V8 Javascript engine around them. The test does show Chrome coming out way ahead of other browsers (for me, Chrome had a score of 403 v. IE7’s 18). Try it out for yourself.
And also try the SunSpider Javascript benchmark test as well. Firefox’s new build, which runs the TraceMonkey engine, comes in marginally faster than Chrome there.
Today Yahoo’s Zimbra team also published their own test results based on how well different browsers ran the Javascript-heavy Zimbra web application. No surprise: Chrome beat the pants off of Firefox and (especially) IE8. But…Safari came in slightly ahead of Chrome.
So Is Chrome the fastest browser? Who knows. It clearly runs Javascript, at least, very well. But more important than these speed tests is Google’s build on Mac and Linux. A lot of users are still sitting on the sidelines, waiting to try it out.
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Chrome may be the fastest browser, yet my tests on DOM selector (Mootools’ SlickSpeed) tell different story. Try it out http://javascriptly.com/2008/0.....le-chrome/
I love this Chrome thing. My favorite feature is the start page w/thumbnails of recent webpages.
Keep rockin Google!
Gil, have u ever tried Pageflakes? Seems to be more elegant and complete than Chrome’s feature…
structured standardized uniform content is not googs forte. goog wants to keep you confused. anything for a page click or view. if they wanted to help people they would market chrome on there homepage and change the name to “my browser.” imagine the next confusing name app they come up with will be called “copper” or “tin” or how about “pewter”. they may dabble in the future reality of search but they wont promote it. being efficent with structured uniform user generated search habits with the use of a browser can be what puts googl out of business. they know it. do you?
Waiting for Adblock Plus on Chrome. Maybe Firefox will have faster Javascript by then.
Speed Dial has been on Opera for a quite a long time. Google just borrowed the idea. Its a nice feature but there isn’t any real innovation there.
Test
I’m excited to have Chrome for Android. In my test it wasn’t the fastest and i’m sure now that they have ‘tried’ to set a standard, Firefox will most definitely come in and smash them. Nice to have a little more competition from.
Is Chrome The Fastest Web Browser? Poll your opinion in 1 second at tinyCrunch
As of now, speed doesnt matter. IMO, actually what matters is how it handles JS and CSS chache both now are more than half mb in size in many complex websites… Every browser refreshes js and css files unnecessarily on refresh. It can rather load already available js and css, and download again in background to see new version of js / css is available. I think this is the main deterrent in js/ajax apps becoming more sofisticated..
i think that is the main diffrence as well
and oh , to crash your chrome browser, just type :% in your address bar :)) . Hope fully they will come up with a better Terms of usage like as a user, I will also get some ownership to my content.
EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Hats off..
Just create all links with :% and see what happens. Even a hover crashes the thing
try // in the address bar….
Megarespect!
chrome is faster than opera it is a rule, but firefox v8 can pass it.
I’m using it, I’m liking it, I’m keeping it.
And I realise it’s the first beta, so I’m carefull.
Chrome is fast but it is quite unstable. It needs to be polished and get a brand new EULA. Anyway I will still use Firefox.
I still use FF too, and I haven’t even tried - nor really want to, Chrome.
if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it…the transition costs outweighs whatever benefit is derived.
lol @ transition costs for changing browsers.
What exactly are the transition costs? I paid nothing. In fact, Chrome was up and running within 30 seconds.
The reason I switched is because Firefox crashed at least 5 times a day. I’m a music industry guy and have to use MySpace; if you switch between the MySpace music player, YouTube videos, and the Mp3 player built into Gmail, you’ll find some bugs.
So, it IS broke, and Chrome fixed it.
Oh boy, :% crashes the browser! I’m loving it!
Bruwahahaha!
about:crash
是个好命令啊。/ is a fanny thing.
Mike, do you really think, that your readers appreciate the “120x” google chrome post in 2 days? come on, its annoying now… finish it and start writing about interesting or new things again…
Well said phil. One or 2 posts is enough. But I guess TC are getting VERY desperate for page hits. There stats are crumbling.
Look at Techcrunchs Alexa ratings
http://www.alexa.com/data/deta.....ize=Medium
Techcrunch for the Deadpool?
How accurate is Alexa? Google Trends says otherwise, Techcrunch is healthy and alive.
http://trends.google.com/websi.....amp;sort=0
Alexa is not so accurate because it mainly gets traffic information from its Alexa toolbar users. If TechCrunch’s stats is declining, it only means that there are lesser Alexa toolbar users coming to TechCrunch than before.
I agree with your great observation, Danny.
Mr PMAN , Alexa is used just by a couple of Techcrunch users . One of them is you. A desperate search is on for the other person. Do you have any clue who he or she is ???
LOL
Alexa is dead you m…n.
Alexa gets their data from many sources, toolbars are far from their only source of data.
I also use compete to track trends, not perfect, but better the data always appears to be better than alexa.
Looks like techcrunch is doing just fine:
http://siteanalytics.compete.c.....etric=sess
Sometimes Alexa does show up wrong stats, may be because of change in visitors or browsers.
Phil
mike needs to lick Google’s a$$ in order to get invite to their parties. that’s why you will probably see 20 extra posts about this non-news browser launch.
omg techcrunch is slowly becoming as credible as The Onion
Not only parties. He needs a ride on the Googlejet on his next trip to Davos
No more please. Fact is the efficiency of the engine means less and less every day as computers are constantly improved. I’m sure most tech readers are running better then average systems themselves.
Phil; it’s fine by me. I guess it’s all relative as to what you determine to be news.
What’s funny is that most of these haters pimp their own shitty sites or blogs by attaching the URL to their name. First, that’s a bad choice - everyone will associate your name with pure bullshit.
Statistically, those ‘pimped’ sites bring in only a fraction of the audience TC does. So if TC is really as bad as they claim, then their site must be that much worse, right?
-anon
Chrome is fast and that’s true, but only on simple websites. As far as more stuff-loaded sites are concerned it doesn’t show anything special (not to mention few usability issues, but that’s ok as it is a beta). And I am not talking about benchmarks, but let’s call it a ‘usual-day testing’, which in my opinion should be taken into consideration while praising another product just because it is from Google, Apple, etc.
I also completely don’t understand why people do not include Opera browser in all these reviews, which I firmly believe is the god of funcionality (e.g. mouse gestures and general layout of the browser) and speed in real life.
Opera is a great browser, but on many sites it displays the page layout slightly weird or horrible (which may be in part that Opera is using strict layout standards).
Since most of what you use the browser for requires the eyes, I will not be using Opera until they make viewing web pages a little bit more “pleasing to the eyes.”
That’s an urban legend. I use Opera for everyday browsing and rarely I see anything displayed not correctly. It’s a bit worse in that matter than Firefox 2, but still better than Firefox 3 and Chrome. There are some pages that doesn’t work with Opera (like Picasa) but masking Opera as Firefox or as IE reveals that it’s not the browser’s fault.
That doesn’t mean Opera doesn’t have any issues - the biggest one is that it crawls when it comes to render a huge page or an unoptimized javascript applications. I hope they will fix it in the next major release. Eventually Google could implement some (more) Opera’s features in Chrome. Then I would make a switch.
I hope they don’t leave the mac users waiting for months on the sidelines. I’m ready to ditch safari as my no. 2 browser anytime.
And I can’t help but wonder if Chrome will be like Gmail and stay in BETA like…… forever? I think Google is sitting too comfortable to get out of this mode.
V8 Benchmark Suite - version 1
Google Chrome - Score: 1689
Internet Explorer 7 - Score: 39 (test interrupted with “Stop script” alert)
..very cool!
:% is like CTRL+ALT+DELE
..instant reboot of the browser!
..yeah..
..i think its a feature!
i wish firefox had a :% feature!
lol
I really love it, I’ve never seen a browser as smooth and quick as Chrome! I hope they will create a roadmap stronger than the others seen for GTalk & Co.
There is a phpBB forum I use (http://goonersworld.co.uk/forum), where Chrome is much slower than FF in the “New Post” page. Is it slowed down due to the gifs or something?
Whao, That’s 14 negative comments out 16. Either Chrome is a piece of crap or we have the most pessimistic posters on Techcrunch.
This thing just released 2 days ago and its already beaten the pants off Firefox and IE in perhaps the 2 most important areas; its lean and high performance. And this is not even debatable, all benchmarks by a wide variety of individuals clearly show that, any ajax app you run will show that. Everyone likes fast and efficient, or do they?
Its totally new technology and ideas with the exception of webkit and the best thing is its not future plans or ball talk, its already executed and out there released for us to test. It’s is a beta test release and can only IMPROVE. Is that reason for negativity/pessimism even if you don’t like it or plan to use it or cautious optimism? Does anyone here like new ideas and good execution or is it more important to dump on people who try new things?
Its normally presumed people would be warm to new things and tech and new ways of approaching problems. But clearly one would be wrong. More than half the commentators are making the same points in all the chrome related threads suggesting few have botherd to read the comic or watch the presscon where the developers explained in detail and easy to understand terms all the objections people are raising now, like the “why”, the rational for building it, the ideas and technology behind it, the ui, secuity and performance perspectives. And yet web developers continue to whine about supporting another browser when that’s the first thing explained, and users about things that Chrome has that they have bothered to even do the most basic reading to realize.
Roger
chrome isn’t a piece of crap but it’s simply non-news. there’s a little innvoation over ff3 or ie8. quicker browser? that’s geektalk. it’s a marginal difference compared to the time you need to wait because Comcast’s broadband service sucks. no consumer will upgrade for a 10 msec or 2 sec difference in loading CNET if chrome’s flash and silverlight sucks - and it does.
The 14 out of 16 pessimistic comments are because 14 out of 16 techcrunch posts have to mention Schmoogle. real techies are fed up with that.
so much innovation is going in the valley and elsewhere but mike and his gang can’t be bothered to research anywhere except the labs.google.com site.
OMG!
Actually by Google placing it on the homepage, many non-geeks are using it because it’s faster (remember, many people are still using IE6, not the latest FireFox).
As for me, the two reasons that I switched away from FireFox is that Chrome does not crash when one tab reaches a bad page (only that one tab).
It also releases more memory when you close a tab. If Firefox actually did these things, then I would probably return back instead of having to use (shudder) IE8 as a back up (when Firefox takes up too much memory).
Darnell, its a DOWNLOAD. Non-geeks have learned not to download malware.
And, though they don’t read CNet, they have the correct impression — since the GOOG is reading everything you type in the Omnibox (even without you hitting Return), and storing it TOGETHER with you’re IP ADDRESS.
See Ina Fried and Carlie Cooper on CNet.
I’m waiting to see what Chrome plugin API comes and when. They may delay such an API as the first one to be built will no doubt be an Adwords blocker, which would give Google a huge problem! Could it be the key driver to Cost Per Action and Video advertising in the future - as if everyone has Chrome with Adwords switched off, other ad formats would be needed to generate the revenues.
I’m a ASP.NET developer but am now using Google Chrome as my primary browser!
Scores:
Chrome - Score: 1877
Firefox - Score: 152
IE8 - Score: 59
So Chrome wins.
I have tried Chrome and I find it amazingly fast and cool!
http://www.KidTechGuru.blogspot.com
hey Kid there are better ways of promoting your site. Stop this spamming
I second siddy… for the few of us who bother to read deep into the comments, it’s annoying. at least say something INTERESTING.
Speed is one thing but errors are another…my internet banking wont work with chrome, and neither will browsing images on the new facebook platform view, it gets stuck on the first few pics…also I have had plenty timeouts on certain sites when I have tested on ff there has been no issues….Yes its beta, but these are basic errors, cant waste time with these issues…I will wait for the stable release..but overall its a good start I think!
To check out how it went in SunSpider Test - Click Below
http://www2.webkit.org/perf/su.....ults.html?{%223d-cube%22:[65,38,37,41,39],%223d-morph%22:[67,75,63,78,75],%223d-raytrace%22:[38,48,65,49,50],%22access-binary-trees%22:[9,7,10,8,8],%22access-fannkuch%22:[38,37,37,38,37],%22access-nbody%22:[76,39,41,40,39],%22access-nsieve%22:[25,25,26,25,26],%22bitops-3bit-bits-in-byte%22:[7,7,7,7,7],%22bitops-bits-in-byte%22:[15,15,15,15,15],%22bitops-bitwise-and%22:[23,24,24,23,24],%22bitops-nsieve-bits%22:[49,36,32,36,36],%22controlflow-recursive%22:[5,5,4,5,5],%22crypto-aes%22:[27,28,26,27,28],%22crypto-md5%22:[25,25,27,26,25],%22crypto-sha1%22:[22,23,22,23,23],%22date-format-tofte%22:[242,259,267,252,239],%22date-format-xparb%22:[223,219,226,231,238],%22math-cordic%22:[77,75,85,83,80],%22math-partial-sums%22:[49,37,50,49,49],%22math-spectral-norm%22:[18,18,18,18,18],%22regexp-dna%22:[383,383,402,399,408],%22string-base64%22:[96,89,95,97,96],%22string-fasta%22:[77,86,78,78,79],%22string-tagcloud%22:[164,190,184,202,203],%22string-unpack-code%22:[262,252,225,272,229],%22string-validate-input%22:[97,118,99,99,93]}
Whoops - someone delete that. I’ll just paste in the results.
============================================
RESULTS (means and 95% confidence intervals)
——————————————–
Total: 2178.4ms +/- 1.4%
——————————————–
3d: 165.6ms +/- 2.6%
cube: 44.0ms +/- 33.4%
morph: 71.6ms +/- 11.0%
raytrace: 50.0ms +/- 24.0%
access: 118.2ms +/- 17.7%
binary-trees: 8.4ms +/- 16.9%
fannkuch: 37.4ms +/- 1.8%
nbody: 47.0ms +/- 42.9%
nsieve: 25.4ms +/- 2.7%
bitops: 83.4ms +/- 9.2%
3bit-bits-in-byte: 7.0ms +/- 0.0%
bits-in-byte: 15.0ms +/- 0.0%
bitwise-and: 23.6ms +/- 2.9%
nsieve-bits: 37.8ms +/- 21.4%
controlflow: 4.8ms +/- 11.6%
recursive: 4.8ms +/- 11.6%
crypto: 75.4ms +/- 1.5%
aes: 27.2ms +/- 3.8%
md5: 25.6ms +/- 4.3%
sha1: 22.6ms +/- 3.0%
date: 479.2ms +/- 2.6%
format-tofte: 251.8ms +/- 5.8%
format-xparb: 227.4ms +/- 4.0%
math: 144.8ms +/- 7.7%
cordic: 80.0ms +/- 6.4%
partial-sums: 46.8ms +/- 14.6%
spectral-norm: 18.0ms +/- 0.0%
regexp: 395.0ms +/- 3.6%
dna: 395.0ms +/- 3.6%
string: 712.0ms +/- 4.9%
base64: 94.6ms +/- 4.2%
fasta: 79.6ms +/- 5.7%
tagcloud: 188.6ms +/- 10.5%
unpack-code: 248.0ms +/- 10.3%
validate-input: 101.2ms +/- 11.9%
Interesting screen shots…
Sally’s Recipes? What are you cooking up over there, Mike?
Microbenchmarks are not the best way to benchmark browsers, because there are a number of systems involved which control your perceived latency in the UI. There’s raw Javascript execution speed, speed of object/heap collection, DOM performance, CSS/layout performance, rendering performance, Regexp performance, and so on. Not to mention differences in how the event loops are pumped and timer resolution which can add to perceived lag.
In any case, here is a benchmark http://api.timepedia.org/benchmark which tests most of the browser’s subsystems, from JS execution speed, large heaps, rendering performance, DOM mutation performance, etc. It’s more representative of a holistic rich-internet-app, something you might usually do in Flash or Silverlight, but could reasonably attempt now in the latest browser engines due to their enhanced speed.
@cromwellian - your results below:
Trial Results (Trials=10)
Trial 1 - 1644ms
Trial 2 - 1589ms
Trial 3 - 1576ms
Trial 4 - 1585ms
Trial 5 - 1587ms
Trial 6 - 1574ms
Trial 7 - 1585ms
Trial 8 - 1588ms
Trial 9 - 1565ms
Trial 10 - 1591ms
Summary - Mean: 1584.375 stddev: 5.743202503830071
Estimated FPS - 63.1163708086785 frames per second
Talk of DOM and InnerHTML, the need of the web 2.0 i.e. and Safari kicks ass.. Chrome, FF and Opera can all take a hike. By Safari, I mean safari 4 on Win btw.
http://www.quirksmode.org/dom/innerhtml.html being the site for testing.
It has been admitted that Chrome does very fast on recursive benchmarks.. so there thats what Chrome is shining on.
omg
who cares about this 500 msec difference? my comcast’s delay when bittorrent or emule are open far outweigh any marginal difference between chrome and ff3 or even ie8. you guys are enjoying such a Geekfast about non-news
btw chrome barely works with any site with some heavyduty flash or silverlight2… why would i ever switch from ff3 or ie8????????
Yup Chrome is faster, It looks like a web application rather than a desktop application. I’ve gone through the whole browser, its installation files and all the UI’s but still i feels that i am not running a desktop browser, it is a web application running in some browser. and Really it is smooth just like other services of google like Gmail, reader and so on. And it optimizes the use of screen, Maximum screen area offered without functionality loss.
What I think, now google has to work on its own OS, that will be an OS with a browser and internet connection and nothing else. Anyway, Good article.
hey people! do you know about that there is this great browser called Opera that has a super fast javascript engine (at worst “on par” with Safari, FF, even Chrome if not faster in some cases) - it’s not that I say Opera is the best (that’s the matter of opinion) but how the product of that excellence is constantly ignored in all those articles on browsers is simply ridicilous .
What’s most silly is that people are getting ‘oh! my god! it’s so great’ with many features of Firefox or Chrome or IE that were introduced while ago in Opera (tabs over the address bar, “speed dial”, saved sessions, synchronizing, rss reader) - and it works on mobile phones too (eat that Mozilla ;))
oh, and it seems that techcrunch’s server won’t even let me add comment through Opera, what the hell?
Ted I used opera for a long time. But after using Fiefox with the extensions I did not even think of Opera. I downloaded the newer versions a couple of time but it does not match Firefox even in speed. Chrome is quite good. I am using it and might change it to my main browser in a couple of days.
fair enough Siddy - but it’s not about which browser is better, as I said before that’s a matter of a personal opinion (I still find Opera better than FF - it’s more lightwieght, fast, has some killer features like mouse gestures, panels, trash bin, notes, synchronisation, wand and so on) - it’s just about the fact that Opera is ignored in all those articles on browser comparisions
Opera just needs better marketing! not sure how objective research on google on this topic is, but search for “chrome browser” already yields more results than search for “opera browser”. I think only people “in the know” know about opera…
I’ve used it many times (unimpressed) but, then again, as a web developer I use almost ALL browsers on a daily basis.
Chrome is a security nightmare. It indexes your bank accounts.
http://www.tgdaily.com/content/view/39176/108/
No It is not. Firefox has released Stats.
It may be fast at some things - but my real-life usage shows some sites work well while others are just unusable. My banking sites came up immediately in Flock (no cache) but took over 60 seconds in Chrome.
So it may be fast at some things but it’s still not there yet to replace my regular browser.
fast….yeah, its a result of fast execution………..what the fck is crazy abt it - no addons or simple highschool copy look………ha
btw Clicky shows almost 3% share for Chrome for the sites that it tracks. Just below safari. Quite impressive
For a beta-release, this is an excellent start. I guess it will take a year or so to mature.
For me, to start using it, a couple of Firefox-plugins (especially Firebug) would have to be available. I wonder if/when that’s going to happen.
Its not gonna replace anything, plain and simple.
Point 1. Flexibility with ajax? I dont think chrome supports
Point 2. We are expecting browser addons.Do you think chrome will remain the fastest?
http://acid3.acidtests.org/
Opera…
http://labs.opera.com/news/2008/03/28/
What about chrome ???
Interesting Analysis. However, unless the resource consumption is obvious to average user, i doubt that will be a deciding factor.
Let Google be Google and take care of searches and do good job and Let Microsoft be Microsoft and take care of OS & browsers.
I don’t see why each is trying to undermine other’s area of expertise.
That said, I can’t understand the animosity towards Microsoft by lots of developers when it’s Microsoft that created millions of jobs for IT- anything from .Net, MCSE & SQL server.
Who is employed by Google’s inventions other than few thousand folks in their offices?
Doesn’t make sense specially; when Google is designing just to hit Microsoft, not good for the consumer at all.
I’m ok with IE & Firefox.
I am using opera 9.5 version and its score is 84/100
I’ve been using it since launch and I’m loving it; it’s fast, clean and has clever functions. It’s going to be the truly IE competitor, not FF. Besides, Widexplorer works better and faster on it!
http://www.widexplorer.com
Please let there be a native Linux port and not just WINE parody like Picasa for Linux. I am craving for simple lightweight browser like this… pleaseeee
Thanx in advance:-)
another hype on Google product
Im lost, ive benchmarked on about 25 sites and IE loads pages in half the time.
omg chrome and its flash add-in just crashed my seeqpod.com. i keep giving chrome a chance to see if there’s any chance there’s something good about this yet-another browser.
seeqpod crashes. that sucks. no problem whatsoever with opera, ff3 or ie8.
so in a few hours i’ve changed my mind. so far chrome sucks. i don’t care about 30msec quicker browser if i can’t listen in to music on seeqpod.com
I think I’ll stay away from it for now.
http://www.readwriteweb.com/ar.....chrome.php
i agree that chrome is faster than firefox but i get a serious problem with chrome. usually when not using the web, i turn my wifi connection off but leaving my laptop on with all applications running. when i put the web back on, firefox quickly get updated while chrome sucks, i have to close chrome and open it back to work well. what’s wrong with chrome mr brin-page…………….
I have experienced it,its the fastest to load.
It also crashes very fast.
Crashed on install for me. Six different times. I can’t even test it out.
I’m not a geek but a regular user. Unfortuately I’m using a Windows based PC …
I’m always looking for a browser that is efficient - quick since I do a fare amount of eBay / Amazon type browsing. What haven’t I tried? I was a big fan of FireFox until it became overburdoned with too many features. I have considerable trouble with popups with IE, another candidate for bloat. Opera’s structure and layout are not efficientent for my use and it too seems to be top heavy feature wise for the purpose. I finally switched to Safari and it eliminated most of of my complaints, especialy with leaking popups and susceptibility to pop under window calls to IE from certain sites. I should note that the best performance feature across the board is OpenDNS. My guess is at least a 3X improvement in the initial delivery of a page.
Before Chrome I finally found the one browser that was noticably faster in page delivery and ability to enter information into page fields, K-Meleon 1.5x. So that has become my benchmark in real world use. I have never had a popup or po under or page launchs with K-Meleon so it is more than comparable to Safari in that regard.
Chrome comes very close, but it is still slower than K-Meleon to the extent I notice the difference. I’m not testing in terms of milliseconds, just long term experiance for the type of browser use. I do like the way Chrome handles file downloads, at time FileGet fails in both Safari and K-Meleion. Chrome lacks some basic features K-Meleon provides, so for the time being I will stick with K-Meleon.
My major complaint with Chrome is that at times it will crash if a single tab is being used and you type a “search” into the address bar and it is not recoverable as a history list item upon relaunch. For that reason alone I don’t think it is where it needs to be for any critical function.
My observation is FireFox has tried to be too many things to too many people as a cross platform application. Forget IE!
just to be sure… OpenDNS has nothing to do with any ONE of your browsers. it changes your router’s DNS settings which affects ALL your browsers.
(I figure you knew but your comment seemed ambivalent in that respect).
As a more relaxed geek, I’d also like to point out that it’s still in beta.
Yes, you could argue that google should have delivered a more stable beta but, then again, a lot of people think that Vista is still in beta and the iPhone 3G etc…
I wonder what will happen to the Alexa stats over the next few months as all the techies who would normally browse with it attached try out chrome?? Interesting to see
John Resig of jQuery fame says it best in his blog post about JavaScript performance and testing - http://ejohn.org/blog/javascri.....e-rundown/