Web Browser Grand Prix 2: The Top 5 Tested And Ranked

[SlipUp]

The fact is, it's easy enough to produce favorable results supporting ANY browser. You can even do this for IE6 if you try hard enough. Simply pick a single benchmark or a group of potato-oriented tests and viola, there's the fastest browser ever! That is why we run all of them. If we find a valid benchmark that runs on every browser, we use it.

Then why are you still including the V8 benchmark, which is specifically made to run fast in Chrome?

The overall winner, when including the non-speed benchmarks, is Google Chrome.

How can that be, when Opera has more #1 spots than Chrome?

 

[SlipUp]

Beacuse new Opera rendering engine is big mistake - incompatybility, bugs, slow in real world. But no one in Opera Software say it loud.

What are you talking about? Opera 10.5x and 10.60 are very fast in the real world, and I haven't found any major bugs.

 

[SlipUp]

How can Opera be #1 when they don't even have a simple ad-blocker?

They do. And better yet, you can use third party ad blockers too, if you want even more options.

 

[Guest]

I guess that big O is for zero, because that is the amount of info you give on the only aspect of a browser that is important to most of us; that is, how secure are they. How much data to they leak? How secure can they be made without intrerrupting the flow of browsing? Ok, maybe it's in there in the article somewhere, I didn't read it since the security issue is not mentioned in your chapters. Like under Flash you only tell us about the speed as oppossed to how each browser deals with the vulnerabilities that it presents. What a lame industy centric review.

 

[SlipUp]

Opera results in Dromaeo test is bug!

No, Opera is just smarter than the other browsers in that particular case.

Only thing I miss is Noscript (FF addon.)

It has that built in. Disable scripts in the preferences, then right-click the page you want to enable it for and edit the site preferences for that site.

 

[SlipUp]

RE: Dromaeo JavaScript - Only Opera or Mozilla can fix the Dromaeo bug, I'll make some calls and see what's up. We might have to scrap that test or disqualify Opera again if one of them doesn't change something in time for WBGP3.

So you are basically punishing Opera for genuinely being much better and having a "smarter" JavaScript engine than the competition?

You should either give Opera its rightful win, or pull the Dromaeo test completely until you've figured it out. It is not fair to give the victory to Chrome.

 

[SlipUp]

I guess that big O is for zero, because that is the amount of info you give on the only aspect of a browser that is important to most of us; that is, how secure are they. How much data to they leak? How secure can they be made without intrerrupting the flow of browsing? Ok, maybe it's in there in the article somewhere, I didn't read it since the security issue is not mentioned in your chapters. Like under Flash you only tell us about the speed as oppossed to how each browser deals with the vulnerabilities that it presents. What a lame industy centric review.

Instead of bitching like that, how about you come up with some good suggestions on how to test security? Count known open vulnerabilities?

 

[shovenose]

i am not sure why, but (dont laugh) i like IE 8 so far the best. it seems to work just fine. i use the internet a lot, but IE doesnt perform noticably slower than FF, and i have tried chrome i HATE IT!

IE FTW!

 

[sylvia648]

[citation][nom]shovenose[/nom]i am not sure why, but (dont laugh) i like IE 8 so far the best. it seems to work just fine. i use the internet a lot, but IE doesnt perform noticably slower than FF, and i have tried chrome i HATE IT!IE FTW![/citation]

Besides this guy can we all agree that IE is the worst at least?

 

[LaloFG]

[citation][nom]sylvia648[/nom]Besides this guy can we all agree that IE is the worst at least?[/citation]

I agree with that.
-------------------------------------------------------------
And I think Opera is the best (again)

About security...
-Opera has Private tabs (closing tab = no info, history, etc. recorded)
-Opera mantain a blacklist of suspicious sites (Opera automaticaly shows a warning before open the trashy site).
(all that embedded, no previous configuration, extra addons, downloading scripts, etc.).

 

[yose3]

yea thay are fast but thay never gonna have what firefox have and is customization. when it comes to customize your brower Firefox got the punch... there so much pluggig and stuff that firefox has that i am not planing to change brower for now.

 

[stve]

Can you combine your address bar with the status bar & have it on the bottom of the screen like Opera.
When it comes to customizing the UI Opera rules.

 

[yose3]

firefox 4 beta just came out lolz same thing

 

[belardo]

[citation][nom]benedict78[/nom]How can Opera be #1 when they don't even have a simple ad-blocker? Functionality is much more important than a few ms of loading.[/citation]

Opera does an excellent job of blocking images and such. POP-UPs and other odd-ball issues that make IE a pain in the rear to use.

There are other aspects of Opera that makes it kick butt. It provides a lot of info to the user, while Chrome is featureless.

 

[belardo]

Opera has been my Primary Browser since 9.0. I was trying to get off of IE when Firefox hit 2.0... but I can't use FF the way I need a browser to work, and even today- FF isn't something I use. But I work on websites so I have all of these browsers except for Safari. IE8 is simply to test.

When I work on website design - *I* DO NOT design for IE, period. Webpages I put together with specifics, work 100% with Opera, FF and Chrome... IE8, looks like crap! I don't have time in my life to fix a broken browser - this is not the OLD days when IE had 90% of the market and we HAD to design broken webpages.

There are personalties of these browsers are important and Tomshardware should do a review process on that as well.

Such as:
Interface ease: Opera is super simple (not as bare as Chrome) but almost completely customizable. I modify my version to have a text Search box on bottom like Opera 8~9.x. IE8 is ugly, ends up full of add-on tool bars. There is very limited tab space. And IE8 is constantly throwing out POP-UPs into other windows.

Printing: IE does this right. Opera 10.1x and higher have SEVERELY improved compared to previous versions. But still, there are many times when Opera cannot print certain pages correctly (they tend to be MS's ASP type sites). I don't know how other browsers do. But I rarely print pages.

WebPage Saves : IE does pretty good, Opera does a bit better. Opera remembers how you want to save your pages. Firefox is a complete failure... it uses file-names that are code - rather than the page title... ugh.

Firefox has copied more and more features that Opera has had for years - even changing the tab locations. Chrome has copied Opera's SPEED DIAL feature... which rocks. (You have 9~16 home pages on a single page - its great) IE9 looks more like Chrome. Google Chrome marketing team sucks... Chrome has been out for 2 years and they're up to version 5?

The only thing Opera needs to work on is: improved Printing and severe Memory management... which in turn may improve Opera's performance in the areas it's not doing so well.

Opera rocks... give it a try for a week.

 

[steiner666]

[citation][nom]drudometkin[/nom]Used Firefox for yearssss. Just started using chrome a couple months ago and can't go back to slow ugly Firefox. Love the single address and search bar, tabs on top, minimalist design and speed of chrome.[/citation]

so in all these yearssss you never looked into addons to change these very things with the interface?

too bad these tests are on a stock FF install...

 

[Guest]

I have been using Portable Firefox for many years because of Firefox add-ons. When chrome started providing extensions I shifted to Portable Chrome because of it's speed and UI. From last few days I'm using both chrome & opera portable versions. I can work seamlessly on any browser since I use Lastpass to login to any website. Opera is very good in speed compared to Chrome but lacks extensions feature. Portable Firefox sucks.. Takes lot of time to start, need to restart the browser if we install a new add-on which is not required Chrome. But Portable Firefox updates automatically to new version on portable USB itself whereas Opera & Chrome doesn't. Looking forward for Firefox 4. Internet Explorer is out of question as it doesn't have portability.

All these things really confuses me a lot and can't choose one browser all the time.

 

[machvelocy]

im using opera since 2003, back then they introduce us the most helpful feature, the "TABBED BROWSING", since then i never looked back to other browser. you guys should give it a try. it really surprises me knowing that opera only gains 4% of the browser share.

always remember that if you use opera for the very first time, it'll need to fill up the cache and other setups, so it might runs slow at the beginning. but when it fully charged up, it speed is uncomparable. but remember you might become another opera fanboy , i already warned ya .

no no! im not opera fanboy, i also frequently uses ie (my online bank only want ie for online transx) and firefox for their persona feature (looks very neat).

 

[masaji]

I was bitten by the Chrome bug until FF4 B1 reinfected me. With multithreaded, hardware acceleration, I don't have to feel like a douchebag using an ad company's browser to serve consumerism up my wazzu (yes, there are adblockers, but they are far from the one and only adblock+).

 

[masaji]

I was bitten by the Chrome bug until FF4 B1 reinfected me. With multithreaded, hardware acceleration, I don't have to feel like a douchebag using an ad company's browser to serve consumerism up my wazzu (yes, there are adblockers, but they are far from the one and only adblock+).

 

[Guest]

Using opera and FF. (IE, seamonkey, konqueror on some special occasions)
FF, very good browser, maybe not the fastest but fast enough. Because of minimalist space i can use i have only the tab bar visible - works nicely and takes less space then chrome. (well, haven't found shortcut for google search :hmm Sometimes unresponsive for a few seconds - may caused by the system.
Opera, very good and my favorite. Usually having features i miss in other browsers, that slowly creep in firefox later (example: auto saving of opened tabs). Done filtering flash with styles. Very bad memory management in most versions I used. May be caused by some other factors as well, but able to deplete my memory (3,x GB) after two days of using. Sometimes or with less memory so bad i learned to casually close and reopen the browser at least once a day. Would like them to fix this.

 

[belardo]

To me, Firefox add-ons SUCK.

Every time I turn on FF - it bugs me with a pop-up of what to do. Update this, update that. What to do with itself.

So its for what the person needs is the main thing.

 

[njoy]

Using Firefox for years now, but not planning to switch any time soon. Reason? Plugins database. I'm lazy, so I prefer things to be at hand and that's exactly what I like about firefox. Besides the majestic greatness of adblock, I've got things as IRC and FTP clients one click away, then things like Coral IE tab and Lazarus make life even easier... it's just a good old friend that never lets me down. And I don't really care if a page takes few more seconds to load, speed is not everything.
And about Chrome... i hate when a tab randomly freezes when your connection is not very stable and u just have to sit there and wait for it to become responsive again. It doesn't crash, it just freezes

 

[galnospoke]

[citation][nom]SlipUp[/nom]What are you talking about? Opera 10.5x and 10.60 are very fast in the real world, and I haven't found any major bugs.[/citation]

ROTFL. Go and read: http://my.opera.com/desktopteam/blog/2010/07/01/opera-10-60-goes-final#comments This is "final", but real this is alpha. You make me fun. This "browser" is unusable. Biggest mistake since IE5.

 

[Guest]

@benedict78: Opera had ad-blocker since ages now... Not so sophisticated like Fx's Adblock Plus but I wouldn't call it "simple".