Web Browser Grand Prix: The Top Five, Tested And Ranked

[stephen0983]

I would use Chrome myself but there are certain sites I goto (DeVry University) that doesn't identify the browser, and I have to navigate an additional page or two... kind of stupid. And I don't think Firefox is much better than IE.

 

[Guest]

I was just using Firefox and had to get rid of it. As soon as I typed a letter into the search engine my entire history beginning with that letter appeared. Not cool. Even when I deleted all cookies and history they all still dropped down. There isn't even a way to delete them all one by one. Thanks but no thanks!

 

[feldoh]

[citation][nom]manwell999[/nom]Chrome has a clumsy system to open bookmarks. Instead of a pull down menu you have to click a spanner then select bookmark manager which opens up a bookmark browser so you can then click the frequently used site.[/citation]

True but not, CTRL+B or "spanner -> always show bookmarks bar" places a bar below the address bar which is like the first expanded level of the FF bookmarks tab, this gives even faster, more open and less clunky access to bookmarks than FF or any other browser I have used.

I have been using chrome since its initial release, it started as a test but now I use it full time for everything and though I have 8 other browsers none have been opened in months.

I found that extension not to block most of the ads. Google makes a lot of money off ads, so I can't see their adblock being functional anytime soon.

The Ad-Blocker extension does indeed block all ads in chrome in my experience and the extension database is growing very fast.

 

[arahman87]

[citation][nom]helms[/nom]Please add a 20 tab startup so we can see what happens in kinda worse case scenario[/citation]

It won't be "worst-case" for me using Opera. Heck, at times, I had Opera start up with 5 windows, each with a bunch of tabs.

And I have Firefox open up with close to 20 tabs.

BTW, the article states that IE can't open with more than 8 tabs.

 

[arahman87]

[citation][nom]SJM1B[/nom]I was just using Firefox and had to get rid of it. As soon as I typed a letter into the search engine my entire history beginning with that letter appeared. Not cool. Even when I deleted all cookies and history they all still dropped down. There isn't even a way to delete them all one by one. Thanks but no thanks![/citation]

Tools->Options (or Alt-O)
Select "Privacy"
In the "When using the locaton bar, suggest" option, select either "bookmarks or "nothing".

Here: http://img266.imageshack.us/img266/2781/ffoxg.jpg

 

[41l3f]

ok, So if chrome is the actual leader for windows browsers,
I know another browser that takes the first place over google chrome.
It's comodo Dragon browser.
the comodo team took chromium, they fixed some security problems and delete privacy problems that is part of google chrome. i use a browser for myself, i'm not here to help google with their need to collect the maximal informations on users. do i ask to any google employee anything about his life ? no, so keep your real job and stop your privacy violation over the millions of chrome users.
and this google update that wants to send data all the time ! what's the problem with the update ? it needs to try to connect 10 times a day ?? what for ??
are your releasing a final build each day ??
ok it's not that important and who cares if they want infos about your machine or the softwares you use and your web surf profile to get a never-stop growing database.
but i stopped with chrome when comodo released dragon some months ago,
and i say to all chrome fans that now a better browser is available, better about security and privacy with same speed. try it, it's always a good point to surf with the fastest browser customized by comodo cause they care about users security.
so go DL comodo dragon browser if you think chrome is the best.
it's not ! dragon is !

 

[kkiddu]

In many of those tests, the difference were of few milliseconds. Hardly of consequence to a user. What sets Firefox apart is, as mentioned before, the innumerable customization options and addons. Can't imagine living without GreaseMonkey, AdBlock, Tabmix and what not....You make Firefox your own, and with others, you live with what has been provided for you.

 

[stve]

Opera 10.5 released March second
Opera 10.51 released march 22nd & is 29% faster than 10.5 on the peacekeeper benchmark

 

[Bruceification73]

I was surprised at how poorly Firefox performed. I have had no troubles with it thus far. I might try Google Chrome though.

On another note, IE = Fail...

Also, why even bother testing Safari? It's the most hackable browser there is, who cares how fast it is?

 

[Guest]

Interesting to note that for real world page load times firefox is faster.

But slower for benchmarks.

Good utilization of memory is good too... It not being a resource hog.

 

[Guest]

Opera originally can read wml/xhtml.
Firefox need add-ons for it.
Chrome sometimes open source page instead of the main page. :hammer:

 

[Guest]

All 5 browsers are of equal importance.

Each represent a facial feature.

2 eyes , 2 ears , 1 mouth ~ Firefox(Capable build quilty for novices).

Run New program.

Twentyman program is in progress. Pass all androids this new software and begin to extrapolate. I will meet you all on the other side.

We'll worry about sex later.

I am claiming all 5 Noble prizes in one as I have complete the grand unified theory.

I wish you all the best.

Steven Twentyman.

Stiggy,

Ste.

:0)

 

[Bruceification73]

[citation][nom]helms[/nom]Please add a 20 tab startup so we can see what happens in kinda worse case scenario[/citation]

I don't have most of those browsers but I can tell you through personal tests that Firefox 3.6.3 suffers only about a 3% reduction in test score for V8 benchmark when you have 20 tabs open versus one (at least on my computer). Firefox is great for heavy loads, Chrome is better for a few tabs open only. The rest I don't know, but I do know of a lightweight browser called Arora that tests faster than Chrome for one tab open but much slower than everything but IE with 20 tabs open.

 

[drbaltazar]

i have the latest nightly firefox and i can say one test would have been nice in this lineup i dont believe any browser include it!weird?
http://soupgames.net/guimark2/ so when some say firefox or java is slow i take this with a grain of salt because this test on the latest nightly firefox clearly show that the majority dont know this feature or forgot about it

 

[Guest]

Same ranking with www.speed-battle.com - just JavaScript comparison.

 

[murdoc]

So opera claims their browser version 10.53 is the fastest on Earth, but Tom's hardware shows that Chrome is fastest.

I smell a lawsuit.

 

[Guest]

there are many reasons i favor opera over other browsers, but the one that takes it away from all others is the look and feel of the ui. its so minimal and yet still very easy to use, firefox and IE both give you half a screen of toolbars. i dont have safari experience and from the one time i have used chrome i got the impression chrome is following opera and moving away from 8 inches of toolbars on the screen but they are still nowhere near the opera ui usability and clean look.

 

[Guest]

Also, regarding the request to test with 20 tabs someone made. i frequently open opera with 30+ tabs with enough other programs open to be eating through 3gb+ ram and i have never found myself waiting around for it to open. firefox i have found a little slower with many tabs but not by much, and ie is hopeless with 1 tab i couldnt bring myself to even try it with 5+... i would fall asleep before it gets moving it think.

 

[yohanz]

I've been using all the above browser for past few years now. but as i experience opera 10.53/10.60beta is the real speed king. i am not convince with chrome not as smooth as the opera in all aspect especially in hd video streaming. so in my own opinion, opera is the fastest and the best browser as of this date.

 

[Guest]

I really don't know where you guys have your numbers from. It seems that tests have very different results on different machines. Firefox is THE Ram eater #1 on my machine. And now I have to consider switching to Opera, which I don't like but turns out to need MUCH less Ram.

 

[Guest]

Yes, its plain as day. "Chrome" in row "1st" scored a seven and in "2nd" they scored a whopping nine! What does it all mean Basil? Worst chart ever.

 

[asterix81]

[citation][nom]Tomtompiper[/nom]What about the "Privacy" test? Chrome records everything you type in the search bar and sends it back to Google. If you want big brother get Chrome. If you want control and customization FF or Opera. FF wins for me the addons alone make up for the relative lack of speed. Adblock and Cooliris are invaluable, can you imagine Google ever allowing an Adblock addon for Chrome?[/citation]


well I know IE8 is not the best and not the safest or anything but it is a part of windows and when you move the mouse over the ie8 icon, all the tabs and windows will popup from the task bar and this thing is cool. i use both ie8 and opera

 

[Guest]

Opera was best but seems to have lost support for Googlemaps and is getting more freezes

 

[Guest]

I have switched from IE8 to firefox to opera for one main reason: performance.

i observe one main concern with opera since the release of version 10. it has become buggier and seems to halt in the middle of rendering pages for no reason. lookung up their forum shows that many other users observe the same. version 10 was released a while ago, and even their newest release has not fixed this issue. the same can be observed with the download tool in opera.
if chrome wasn't by google, i would switch immediately. this test confirms some of my suspicions about opera having problems in their development team, and problems with version control of some components, as some bugs get reported again during each launch of a .x0 release.

 

[gserhatli]

chrome wins only 3 and you award it the first? also in acid test, 3 browsers get 100 points and you still show chrome at the top. is that because of alphabetical order? if so why is opera below safari? tomshardware, i dont believe you.