Web Browser Grand Prix 2- 5 Browsers Tested - Opera Wins

From Tom's Hardware Guide, 2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa
Once again, we find ourselves in a situation where multiple parties are claiming the speed crown. Obviously, all of these claims can't be true. 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.

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. Without further adieu, let's get to the testing!

Startup time is tested under two different stress levels: a single tab and eight tabs (the current home tab limit imposed by Internet Explorer 8). In order to get a look at both laboratory and real-world numbers, we use live Web sites for the both the startup times and memory usage benchmarks. How often do you open your browser up to a file on your hard drive? Our Page Load Times benchmarks

remain locally stored to provide a laboratory theoretical max speed.

Single Tab

When Mozilla released Firefox 3.6.6 it said the release was a minor version change, bringing only bug fixes and a slightly tweaked startup time. It did a great job achieving that latter point. Firefox now starts up faster with a single tab than any of the other browsers, barely edging out Opera 10.60. IE8 grabs third, followed by Google Chrome and Apple Safari.

But keep in mind all of the browsers perform well in this test; startup times are all down to around five seconds on our test platform.

Eight Tabs

The placing changes when eight tabs are opened. Opera's six seconds is the lowest by far, only two seconds longer than opening a single tab! Chrome, Firefox, and Safari come in second, third, and fourth, respectively, all taking around fifteen seconds to start up with just a tenth of a second between them. Internet Explorer finishes last at nearly eighteen seconds.

Benchmark Results: Page Load Times

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

Our Page Load Time tests underwent some changes since the last Web Browser Grand Prix. We've updated the lineup to reflect the top five most visited Web sites, according to Quantcast. The new selection includes Google, Facebook, Yahoo, YouTube, and MSN. These sites were saved to the hard drive on June 19^th, 2010.

Run from the hard drive, this set of tests provides a controlled laboratory perspective on the theoretical, best-case-scenario page load times, and therefore may differ greatly from real-world performance.

Google

Google's browser is the fastest at loading the Google homepage, followed closely by its WebKit cousin, Apple Safari. Firefox and IE8 take third and fourth, while Opera drags far behind, almost doubling Mozilla's time.

Facebook

Firefox manages to load the Facebook homepage the fastest. Chrome follows by 20 milliseconds, 

with Internet Explorer another twenty behind Chrome. Safari takes fifty milliseconds longer than IE, and Opera comes in last.

Yahoo!

Chrome takes back the top spot for Yahoo! page load time, trailed this time by the browsers from Microsoft and Apple. Struggling to keep up is Opera, and then Firefox.

YouTube

Chrome yet again takes the gold by a solid margin, followed by Firefox and Opera in a near dead heat. IE8 is just 20 ms behind Opera, while Safari flounders at over five hundred milliseconds.

MSN

Chrome finishes first for a fourth time in our page load tests. IE has another good showing at second place. Safari is in third with Opera closely in tow. Firefox is again defeated, finishing last and taking nearly twice as long as Opera.

Benchmark Results: JavaScript

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

SunSpider v0.9.1



Opera is the clear winner in the latest version of WebKit's SunSpider JavaScript benchmark. Trailing by one hundred milliseconds is Chrome, with Safari close behind in third. Fourth place finisher Firefox is nearly three times slower than the top three, while IE8 is just completely off the charts, taking more than five times longer to finish than Mozilla.


Google V8 Benchmark v5



As we might have predicted, Google Chrome scores the most points in the company's V8 benchmark. Opera comes in 450 points behind Chrome's score, while third-place finisher Safari trails the leader by over one thousand points. Firefox earns just shy of 300 points. Again in last place, IE8 receives a score of slightly over sixty.


JSBenchmark



The placing in JSBenchmark closely resembles that of the Google V8 test. Chrome again places first by a significant margin, but this time Apple's Safari slightly edges out Opera for second place. Firefox fills fourth place with IE8 floundering behind in fifth.


Mozilla Dromaeo JavaScript



Once again, Opera displays troubling results. It is simply too far ahead of the other contenders for this score to be valid. Chrome therefore becomes the winner here, with second-place Safari pulling in less than half the number of runs per second. Firefox takes fourth with just shy of sixty runs per second, while Internet Explorer scores fifty.


On a side note, Chrome v5.0.375.86 also displayed seriously skewed results in this test--almost a thousand more runs than Opera! However, the slight version change to 5.0.375.99 brought the outcome back in line with reality.

Benchmark Results: DOM And Peacekeeper

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

Mozilla Dromaeo DOM



Opera places first in the Dromaeo DOM test. Scoring a solid 300 runs per second higher than Safari, though not far enough ahead to appear invalid. Chrome closely trails Apple's browser and beats Mozilla by a few hundred runs per second. Internet Explorer is again dead last, with a score of just over one hundred.


Futuremark Peacekeeper



Opera 10.60 blazes through the Peacekeeper test, earning a score of nearly 4300--the first browser to pass the 4000 mark on this test system. Chrome comes in second, just shy of 4000. Safari 5 finishes in a distant third, while Firefox only scores 2000. As usual, Internet Explorer has a pitiful showing, with a score of just over 500, one-eighth of Opera's score.

Benchmark Results: HTML5

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

For HTML5 performance testing, we utilized the new GUIMark 2 benchmarking suite. Instead of a single test, like the previous version, GUIMark 2 offers three separate tests that showcase popular applications of HTML5: vector, bitmap, and text. The vector test has two versions: one that changes lines by a single pixel and one that changes by two pixels. According to CraftyMind, the makers of GUIMark, the one-pixel version of the test increases performance in Chrome, Firefox, and Safari.
The benchmark author also states that Safari will not run the test unless the run button is pressed repeatedly. This did occur on our test system as well. However, Safari's showing appears to be accurate still. With the exception of the two-pixel vector test, Safari's scores all seem to be valid.
Internet Explorer 8 would not run either of the vector charting tests, or the bitmap gaming test. The browser reports the current frame rate at 10 FPS for these benchmarks, but displays nothing, and the run button won't initiate the test.


GUIMark 2 HTML5: Vector Charting (1 pixel)



In the one-pixel version of the vector charting test, Opera takes the lead by a solid 1.5 FPS over second-place finisher, Safari. Firefox comes in third, 4.5 FPS behind Safari. Chrome produces a pitiful 4.3 FPS, almost four times lower than Opera's score.


GUIMark 2 HTML5: Vector Charting (2 pixels)



Our experience with the original two-pixel version of the vector charting test mirrors what the benchmark's author described. All of the browsers have very slightly lowered scores, except Safari, which completely tanks the two-pixel test. Opera still holds the top spot with Firefox trailing far behind in second place. Chrome once again performs horribly, barely breaking the 4 FPS barrier. As stated, Safari has an absolutely terrible showing at under 3 FPS.


GUIMark 2 HTML5: Bitmap Gaming



None of the browsers perform particularly well in the HTML5 bitmap gaming test, though Opera has a clear lead over the rest of the pack with slightly over 8 FPS. Chrome, Safari, and Firefox place 2^nd, 3^rd, and 4^th, respectively, with each browser performing about one frame slower than the one before.


GUIMark 2 HTML5: Text Columns



Firefox takes the lead ahead of Google Chrome by nearly a full frame per second. Believe it or not, Chrome is trailed by Internet Explorer, which returned to the race for this final HTML5 test. Safari places fourth, behind IE8 by a mere half frame per second. And in a reversal from the previous HTML5 tests, Opera comes in last, though only 3.36 FPS behind first place finisher Chrome.

Benchmark Results: Flash

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

Like the new HTML5 benchmarks in GUIMark 2, the Flash tests have also received an upgrade. The new Flash benchmark

also sports three separate tests for vector, bitmap, and text, though no single-pixel variant is needed for vector.


GUIMark 2 Flash: Vector Charting



Safari manages to top this round, with Internet Explorer and Opera closely in tow. Firefox and Chrome place fourth and fifth, trailing the others by two frames per second.


GUIMark 2 Flash: Bitmap Gaming



Opera has the slightest frame rate advantage over Firefox and Internet Explorer in Flash bitmap gaming. Safari comes in fourth, while Chrome again picks up the rear.


GUIMark 2 Flash: Text Columns



IE8 finally pulls off a victory, beating second-place finisher Opera by a fraction of a frame. Firefox and Safari are close behind, with Chrome yet again lagging behind the pack.

Benchmark Results: Java And Silverlight

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

GUIMark Java Swing 5



All of the GUIMark Java Swing 5 scores are very close, within a fifth of a frame per second. But in the end, Opera tops the competition, with Firefox and IE8 in second and third, respectively. Chrome trails behind in fourth and Safari places fifth.


Encog Silverlight Benchmark
The Encog Silverlight benchmark is a new addition to the Web Browser Grand Prix. It replaces the Bubblemark Silverlight benchmark because it is easier to get clear reading; Bubblemark's score constantly changes. 





With Encog, the lower the score, the better. Opera manages to get the lowest score by a decent margin. Safari comes in second, followed closely by Firefox and Chrome. Surprisingly, IE8 scores the lowest here. This was one benchmark we thought Microsoft's browser would actually have a good chance of winning.

Benchmark Results: Memory Usage And Management

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

We modified our memory tests in accordance with some of the comments from the first article. Instead of just looking at how much memory each browser used, we also focused on how well that memory was managed. In the previous article, we tested each browser with ten, five, and a single tab open in a single browser window. This time, we took readings for a single tab after displaying google.com for five minutes. We then opened 39 more tabs, using sites that round out the Quantcast Top 40, ensuring that each site had fully loaded. After five minutes, a screen shot

of Windows Task Manager was taken to record memory usage. We then closed all the tabs except the original containing google.com. We again waited five minutes before recording the numbers. 


Finally, we let the browser rest for an additional five minutes to see if the memory usage had dropped any further.


We performed this sequence of testing three times per browser. As stated on the previous page, we used live Web sites for this test. Too many of the top 40 sites are content-driven pages with scrolling headlines. Saving them to the hard drive would have lost content, and therefore provided a lower memory reading than real-world usage.


Single Tab



IE8 uses the least amount of memory in a single tab. Safari follows closely, with Chrome and Firefox in third and fourth (respectively). Opera uses the most memory in a single tab, more than twice as much as Microsoft's browser.


40 Tabs
Unfortunately, Apple Safari would not open 40 tabs at once. After nearly two hours, Safari only managed to fully open eight tabs of the forty-tab load. While the browser is capable of doing this, we found that the app maxes out our test system's CPU. A recreation of the benchmark was done on a top-of-the-line Core i7 rig, and though Safari took a noticeable time to completely load all of the tabs, it did finish. We ended up having to open each of the forty tabs one at a time for this benchmark to work.





Under the heavy load of 40 tabs, Firefox is the king of intelligent memory use. Mozilla's browser only monopolizes 230 megabytes with all forty Web pages fully loaded. Firefox demolishes second-place finisher Opera, which uses almost 710 megabytes. Opera is followed closely by Chrome, which uses just under 740 megabytes and Internet Explorer, which consumes nearly 850 MB. Apple's Safari uses the most amount of memory at just over one gigabyte.


Side Note: Proper Page Loads
During the 40-tab test, we noticed how each of the browsers performed when completely loading and properly rendering Web pages. Chrome had trouble opening all 40 tabs correctly. A handful of the last few tabs did not load at all. And about half of those that loaded needed refreshing for missing or broken elements. Firefox, IE, and Opera did not have nearly as many broken pages, just a few here and there between the three iterations. Obviously, we had a heck of a time with Safari.


-39 Tabs



After closing all 39 additional tabs, leaving only Google open in a single tab, Google's Chrome returns nearly all of the previously-used system memory. Chrome only holds onto ten megabytes of excess RAM from the 39 closed tabs. This memory management is nothing short of exceptional. No other Web browser returns this amount of system memory after having so many tabs open. Even Firefox, which uses the least memory with a full load of tabs by far, returns less memory than Chrome (both in amount and in percentage). Firefox uses the second least amount of memory after closing 39 tabs, but only really returns half, holding onto 80 MB more than it had before the additional tabs were opened. Internet Explorer manages to surprise yet again, giving back three quarters of the 40-tab total. Safari also gives back three quarters of its 40-tab memory total, but that still puts it at 270 MB. Opera performs the worst in this arena, keeping over 350 megabytes after closing 39 of the forty tabs. Not only is this the largest amount of memory that a browser holds onto, but it is half of Opera's 40-tab total.


-39 Tabs: Five More Minutes



After an additional five minutes, Firefox gives back a noticeable amount of system memory (ten megabytes). Opera, on the other hand, gives back a more significant amount of RAM (90 MB). But the Norwegian Web browser still occupies last place. The other browsers showed no significant changes, and the placing remains the same.

Benchmark Results: Standards Testing

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

This section includes standards compliance benchmarks like Acid 3, the new HTML5Test.com, and the CSS3 Selectors Test. While they're not speed tests like the rest of our Web Browser Grand Prix, these benchmarks are extremely important to a browser's ability to properly render Web pages using the latest standards.


With the exception of the Acid 3 completion times, these scores will be held separate from our final judgment on speed, but they will factor into our overall conclusion of performance.


HTML5 Test



Google Chrome takes the HTML5 compliance test by storm, earning a solid 32 point lead over second-place finisher Safari. Apple manages to pull off a slight upset, beating Opera by six points. Firefox places fourth, twenty points behind Opera's 159. As expected, IE8 flunks out, earning a meager 27 points.


CSS3 Selectors Test



Firefox tops the list for CSS3, bringing in a full 578 points. Opera places second with 576, while Chrome and Firefox tie for third with 574. Internet Explorer once again occupies last place, scoring only 349 points out of a possible 578.


Acid 3: Pass/Fail



Chrome, Opera, and Safari receive perfect scores of 100 in the Acid 3 test. Firefox also gets an A at 94 out of 100. Internet Explorer predictably fails, managing to only score twenty points out of the possible hundred.


Acid 3: Speed
In order to call a definitive winner, and to determine placement, we compared the completion times of the three browsers that earned perfect scores in Acid 3.





Opera slaughters the browsers from both Apple and Google. The Norwegian app finishes Acid 3 in almost half the time it takes Safari or Chrome. While I'm sure someone will point out that we are talking about partial seconds here, let me just say that we're also talking about half the time to achieve the same score. A decisive victory is won by Opera. Apple Safari beats Google Chrome by a mere 0.03 seconds to come in second. 

Final Results: Placing

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

Just as we promised in the introduction, we separated the complete standings from the speed-only standings. So we could potentially have two winners today!



Total Placing

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Chrome	10	6	6	4	3
Firefox	5	6	6	10	2
Internet Explorer	2	3	7	5	12
Opera	11	4	5	2	6
Safari	1	10	6	8	4

The overall winner, when including the non-speed benchmarks

, is Google Chrome. Opera is very close on Google's heels, actually bagging more first-place finishes, but it's Chrome's excellent memory management and standards compliance scores (both non-speed tests) that keep Google the slight overall point leader.


In an unexpected upset, Mozilla Firefox fills the third place spot instead of Apple's “fastest browser in the world", despite Safari earning the most second place finishes. Safari 5 falls solidly behind Firefox 3.6.6, which places last the least out of any browser. IE8 once again gobbled up most of the losses, relegating Microsoft's offering to last place.


Speed Placing

	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th
Chrome	7	6	3	4	3
Firefox	3	4	6	8	2
Internet Explorer	1	3	5	3	11
Opera	11	3	3	2	3
Safari	1	7	6	6	3

When focusing purely on speed, Opera screeches past the competition to take the speed crown away from Google. Unlike last time, it isn't really a photo-finish. Chrome grabs second, but it's not enough to give Opera a run for the money. Firefox and Safari are in a dead heat for third, with a ever so slight edge in Mozilla's favor. As we all already knew, Internet Explorer owns last place.

Conclusion

2:00 AM - July 13, 2010 by Adam Overa

Like last time, we break down the results by category to determine how the browsers perform overall. Now, instead of just leaving you with a winner and calling it a day, we're also going to break down some of the strengths and weaknesses of these browsers, observed during the course of benchmarking. We spotlight the weak points, again, not to beat on any of these apps, but in the hope that it will not be an issue be when the time comes for Web Browser Grand Prix 3.


Winner By Category / Test
During the course of benchmarking, we observed that the WebKit browsers from Apple and Google displayed some troubling non-memory related behavior during the 40 tab memory usage test. Though not specifically tested, the CPU is maxed out by Safari in this benchmark, tying up the system indefinitely. While Google's browser didn't become unresponsive or exhibit any CPU issues, a few Web pages didn't load at all - they didn't freeze or stall, but simply appeared as blank white pages with no activity. Many of the pages that Chrome did load required reloading due to broken or missing elements - significantly more than Firefox, IE8, or Opera. We'll be looking into concocting ways of measuring CPU usage as well as proper, complete, and accurate page rendering for a future edition of the Web Browser Grand Prix.

Category / Test	Winner	Also Strong	Weak
Speed Tests
Startup Times	Opera	None	None
Page Load Times	Chrome	None	Opera
JavaScript	Chrome	Opera, Safari	Firefox, Internet Explorer
DOM	Opera	None	Internet Explorer
Peacekeeper	Opera	Chrome	Internet Explorer
HTML5 Performance	Opera	None	None
Acid 3	Opera	Chrome, Safari	Internet Explorer
Flash	Opera	Internet Explorer	Chrome
Java	Opera	All	None
Silverlight	Opera	All	None
Other Tests
Memory Usage	Firefox	None	Safari
Memory Management	Chrome	None	Firefox, Opera
CSS3 Compliance	Firefox	Chrome, Opera, Safari	Internet Explorer
HTML5 Compliance	Chrome	Firefox, Opera, Safari	Internet Explorer

In the previous Web Browser Grand Prix, Opera had a small lead on our winner Google Chrome when the results were broken down by category. This time around, Opera wrangles a massive victory, dominating in eight out of the fourteen categories. This makes Opera the hands down winner of Web Browser Grand Prix 2. Though Google Chrome holds a scant lead in points when taking all benchmarks into account, Opera easily wins the speed race and owns over half of the wins per category. Right now, the Norgwegian browser-maker is the only outfit that can claim to have "the world's fastest browser."





Will Opera continue to best the competition in almost every single speed test? Will Chrome again dominate JavaScript and Page Load Times? Will Apple ever get around to fixing Safari's CPU and memory issues (will Opera fix the latter)? Can anyone reach Firefox-level peak memory use, or match Chrome in management? With Chrome 6, Firefox 4, and Internet Explorer 9 just around the bend, it won't be too long before we find out. Until then, stay tuned to Tom's Hardware.

Follow Adam on Twitter

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/opera-10.60-internet-explorer-9-safari-5,2680.html

Browser Memory Use Tests

Benchmark Results: Memory Usage
2:00 AM - March 4, 2010 by Adam Overa, from Toms's Hardware Guide

Windows Task Manager reports that our operating system (Windows Ultimate 64-bit) uses approximately 18% of physical memory at boot (about 700MB). Both Chrome and Internet Explorer have two entries in the Windows Task Manager when only one window and one tab are open. Both browsers add additional entries when new tabs or windows are opened. All of the Web pages we used were saved to the hard drive on January 23^rd, 2010.
The Google homepage was used as the test page in the Single Tab test.



Apple's Safari uses the least memory with only one tab and window open. Google Chrome is also light on memory with a single tab, despite reports to the contrary. Opera uses the most memory, nearly twice as much as third place finisher Internet Explorer.
Bing, Google, Hulu, Twitter, and Wikipedia make up the 5 Tab test pages.



Firefox uses the least amount of memory in this test. Opera places last with Chrome not far behind, both almost doubling the memory usage of Firefox.
For the ten-tab test, we visit craigslist, Facebook, Tom's Hardware, Yahoo!, and YouTube from our Page Load Times benchmark, and add them to our five-tab test consisting of Bing, Google, Hulu, Twitter, and Wikipedia.



Firefox again uses the least amount of memory. Chrome and Opera give us another pair of upsets, again finishing fourth and fifth (respectively). This time Opera utilizes more than twice as much memory as our winner: Mozilla Firefox.
The big surprise here is Opera's and Chrome's poor showing in the multi-tab tests. Overall, Firefox delivers the best memory usage results. It comes in first place for the five- and ten-tab usage tests, but fourth in the single-tab metric.

Source: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/firefox-chrome-opera,2558-4.html

Opera 10.60 Brings More Than Speed

Opera 10.60 beta is out the door, and they’ve reinstated Linux as a first-class citizen for releases. The latest release has more speed, WebM support, and Geolocation for users who want everyone to know exactly where they are when posting from Twitter.

Joe Brockmeier

Friday, June 25th, 2010

Opera keeps churning out new releases faster than you can say “Vuvuzelas are annoying.” With the 10.60 beta, Opera is faster, smarter, location aware, and serving up WebM video. Waiting for 10.50 final for Linux? Forget it, hop on board the beta train to 10.60.

Opera decided to skip the final 10.50 release for Linux altogether and jump ahead to 10.60. At the speed the company is releasing new builds, it’s not hard to see why. Let’s take a look at what’s new in this release.

Speedy

The speed battle continues, with Opera striving to achieve speed supremacy over Google Chrome and Safari. The company says that this release is 50% faster for JavaScript than 10.50. I usually like to benchmark Opera versus the latest Chrome and Firefox, but was a bit hesitant to try benchmarking this time around. Not because of any flaws with Opera, but because my ISP (Charter) was providing flaky service. I couldn’t be sure that conditions would remain the same between browser tests, so I opted to hold off.

What I did test is how pages rendered with the Opera 10.60 beta JavaScript engine. For the most part, Opera 10.60 renders like a champ. However, I found a few glitches. Google Docs didn’t display properly using Opera 10.60, showing read-only displays of the docs instead. Thinking it might be a problem with the browser ID, I told Opera to identify as Internet Explorer — but still found the same issues.

On Identi.ca, the page renders OK excepting the text box has the same background as the rest of the page — which can make things a bit challenging to read when posting. The text box should have a white background.

WebM Support

Opera isn’t alone in this, but it will be one of the first browsers shipped with WebM support. All you need to do to see WebM videos in 10.60 beta is run it and check out a page with WebM video samples. Playback is smooth and videos look great in 10.60.

It’s good to have support in Opera for this, but it will be a while before there’s a lot of use for WebM. YouTube is ramping up support for WebM, which is where many folks get most of their online video, but outside of YouTube I haven’t seen much rush to produce or deliver WebM content.

Geolocation Support

Another new feature in 10.60 is support for the Geolocation API. If you’re one of those folks into Foursquare or other sites that want to update the world with your location, Opera will help you do it!

Call me a curmudgeon, but this is one feature that I could skip quite happily. I’m not crazy about the idea of sharing location information in an automated way. I’m sure that legitimate applications for Geolocation exist, but I’m not terribly interested in using them. Opera does do a good job of verifying that you want to share this when a site asks for the location info. I tried it out using Identi.ca. The first time it’s used, Opera not only verifies that you want to provide the information to the site in question, but then pops up a terms and conditions dialog that gives greater detail about the Geolocation feature and privacy policies.
What may not be obvious if you don’t read through the entire dialog is that Opera feeds location data through Google Location Services and then provides the guesstimate of the latitude and longitude to the Web site. So not only are you dealing with Opera’s privacy policy, you’re also dealing with Google’s.

How does it fare? Not so well. When I posted to Identi.ca with Geolocation turned on, it provided my location as Bradenton, Florida. That would have been accurate a few weeks ago, but I was posting from St. Louis, Missouri. I’ve no idea how Opera is getting its information, but it’s definitely not error-free. This may be an error on Google Location Services’ part, though. Either way, some work remains before this is entirely solid.

Miscellaneous Improvements

Opera 10.60 includes a slightly buffed up “peek” effect for tabs, so when you hover your mouse over the tab bar you see prettier and rounder thumbnails of pages.

Speaking of tabs, I have to say that Opera offers the best out of the box experience with tabs. You can re-arrange them to the right, left, or bottom of the browser without an extension needed. You can create a “follower” tab that will open any links clicked in the current window. I’m finding that feature insanely useful. It may not be new, but it is useful.

They’ve also buffed up Speed Dial a bit to help with wide-screen monitors, which is nice. I don’t use Speed Dial enough, which definitely needs to change.
Other than those features, Opera 10.60 isn’t terribly different. It’s a nifty upgrade, but with iterations coming out so quickly there’s not likely to be huge leaps forward in each release.

Worth Checking

The Opera 10.60 beta has a few bugs, like some oddness editing Speed Dial pages, but it’s stable and speedy. Generally I test Opera and then go back to using Firefox and Chrome, but it’s starting to grow on me a bit. I might just stick with Opera for a few weeks and see if I could make a go of it as my regular browser.
This release does bring more than speed, even though that’s always the first feature the Opera folks lead with. Opera often hypes its speed, but undersells its actual features. While speed is good, it’s not terribly useful if the rest of the browsing experience is sub-par.

The main sticking point is still extensions. No Evernote, no Xmarks, no Delicious, and no Instapaper extensions for Opera. Without those, my browser is much less useful. If Opera can solve its anemic add-on offerings, it’ll be in a much better position.

Joe 'Zonker' Brockmeier is a freelance writer and editor with more than 10 years covering IT. Formerly the openSUSE Community Manager for Novell, Brockmeier has written for Linux Magazine, Sys Admin, Linux Pro Magazine, IBM developerWorks, Linux.com, CIO.com, Linux Weekly News, ZDNet, and many other publications. You can reach Zonker at jzb@zonker.net and follow him on Twitter.

Source:  http://www.linux-mag.com/id/7816/

Opera v10.6 speeds past Google Chrome 6

by Lee Mathews (RSS feed) May 31st 2010 at 4:40PM

Potatoes shooting out of tubes... A browser racing against boiled spuds... It's all good for a lighthearted laugh, but you're probably more interested in how a browser performs against non-tuber.

A while back, Opera 10.5 briefly snatched away the speed crown from Google Chrome on my system. Chrome's been comfortably in the lead for quite some time now when it comes to performance, but that may be about to change with the arrival of Opera 10.6.

I put the newly-released Opera 10.6 snapshot build up against both the Chrome 5 beta and Chrome 6 dev channel builds, and the results were pretty astounding: Opera 10.6 posted a Peacekeeper benchmark almost 25% higher than Google Chrome 6.0.408.1 (my results here). Sebastian's numbers were a bit closer, but Opera 10.6 still won (+14%).

That's pretty substantial, and the difference is noticeable while browsing web sites and tackling my usual daily tasks in apps like Gmail, Google Reader, and Seesmic Web. Opera 10.6 appears ready to reaffirm the fact that Opera has every intention of competing with the big boys.

Maybe Opera was poking fun at more than the original Google ad. Perhaps they were dropping a not-so-subtle hint about 10.6 turning up the heat on Chrome, so to speak...

Source: http://www.downloadsquad.com/2010/05/31/forget-the-potato-opera-10-6-speeds-past-google-chrome-6/

.

Internet Explorer 8 Growing Three Times Faster than Chrome

 By Tony Bradley, PC World, 07-01-2010

After months of consistent declines in overall market share, Internet Explorer had an overall gain in May, but only in the United States. The latest browser market share trends show that Internet Explorer continues to reverse its losses and make gains in market share--this time globally. More specifically, Internet Explorer 8 is leading all competitors and gained more than three times as much as Google Chrome.

Broken down by browser version, Internet Explorer occupies three of the top four market share positions--with Internet Explorer 8 leading the way. Internet Explorer 8 market share grew .66 percent over last month to 25.84 percent of the market. Internet Explorer 6, unfortunately, is still the number two browser with 17.17 percent, while Internet Explorer 7 is in fourth behind Firefox 3.6 with 11.79 percent of the market.

Combining all versions of Internet Explorer together, the overall market share for the Microsoft Web browser grew from 59.75 percent to 60.32 percent. The gains came primarily at the expense of Firefox, which dropped .51 percent. Chrome had a slight gain of .2 percent, but still drags in with only an eighth of the market share of Internet Explorer.

Ryan Gavin, senior director of Internet Explorer business and marketing for Microsoft, elaborates on the Net Applications browser statistics in an Exploring IE blog post. "In June, Net Applications shows overall Internet Explorer share growing by 0.57% worldwide. Internet Explorer 8 share continues to be the fastest growing browser with a 0.66% increase in share, more than 3 times the growth of Google Chrome, while Firefox share declined."

Other than bragging rights, is any of this even relevant? As companies explore the myriad of browser options available, there is something to be said for going with the flow and choosing the browser with nearly two-thirds of the market.

Despite claims by Web development purists and Microsoft bashers that Internet Explorer doesn't follow accepted Web standards and conventions, when a browser dominates the market place the way Internet Explorer does, it more or less dictates the standards.

To Microsoft's credit, though, it does try to work with the established Web standards. Development of IE9 is underway, and Microsoft is working to embrace HTML5, and font-rendering standards, as well as striving to improve the performance of Internet Explorer on accepted Web browser tests like Acid3.

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, and other Web browsers are all equally capable of surfing the vast majority of the Web. However, as developers create custom apps and add-ons to extend the functionality of a given browser, or provide additional interactivity and expand the Web-surfing experience, they are more likely to invest that time and effort developing for the platform that has two-thirds of the market.

The reality is that malware attackers may also target Internet Explorer for the same reason--larger pool of potential victims. However, many Web-based attacks tend not to be browser-specific, and recent testing has demonstrated that Internet Explorer 8 actually beats all competitors in guarding against Web-based socially engineered malware attacks.

Given the vast variety of browsers out there today, I doubt we'll ever see Internet Explorer return to its virtual monopoly glory days of 90-plus percent market share. But, the reversal of fortune over the past couple of months demonstrates that Internet Explorer is also not going to just slowly die away.

You can follow Tony on his Facebook page , or contact him by email at tony_bradley@pcworld.com . He also tweets as @Tony_BradleyPCW .

Source: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/200283/internet_explorer_8_growing_three_times_faster_than_chrome.html?tk=hp_blg

New Google News design emphasizes choice

New Google News design emphasizes choice, June 30, 2010 3:02 PM PDT
by Tom Krazit. The new Google News design will be rolling out to U.S. users over the next day or two.


Google has given Google News a serious makeover, adding more personalization options and organizing everything in a single row of topic headlines.

The company announced the changes Wednesday afternoon, but they have been testing ways to improve the ability to customize the Google News page for a while. "We're also trying to better highlight interesting stories you didn't know existed and to make it easier for you to share stories through social networks," said Kevin Stolt, a Google software engineer, in a blog post.

Over the next day or two, Google News visitors will start seeing a "News for You" section underneath the "Top Stories" section at the top of the page. "News for You" is a user-generated list of topics and news sources, while the "Top Stories" section plays pretty much the same role it does on the current site, highlighting the top three or so major stories being covered by the media.

Google said it also improved the way it allows readers to share stories with the social network of their choice, and will put the "Spotlight" section designed to highlight interesting feature stories in a more prominent place near the top of the page.

The changes are coming first to the English-language version of Google News in the U.S., but will arrive in other countries and languages over the next several months, Google said.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20009344-265.html?tag=newsEditorsPicksArea.0
.

IE reverses usage share slide

 
IE reverses usage share slide; Microsoft cheers, July 1, 2010 2:37 AM PDT
by Stephen Shankland

This chart shows the changing usage of the five top browsers; the darker colors are from earlier and the lightest color shows percentages for June 2010.
 

(Credit: data from Net Applications, chart by Stephen Shankland/CNET)

Internet Explorer has reversed a years-long slide in browser usage, at least for the month of June, reclaiming share at the expense of Firefox.

IE increased usage from 59.8 percent to 60.3 percent, according to new statistics from Net Applications, an analytics company that monitors browser usage across a large network Web sites. It was buoyed by increasing usage of IE8 that offset the decline in IE7--and by what Web developers no doubt hope will be only a temporary pause in the decline of the despised IE6.

The change in fortunes was significant enough that Microsoft couldn't resist crowing about IE's progress in a blog post Thursday. "We certainly don't judge our business on just two months of data, but the direction here is encouraging," said Ryan Gavin, senior director of business and marketing for Internet Explorer.

Although IE has long been scorned by Web developers for its out-of-date features and its lack of compliance with Web standards, Microsoft is working hard to change the browser's image. The IE9 Platform Preview bare-bones browser prototypes, of which three have been released so far, are steadily accumulating modern features in HTML (Hypertext Markup Language), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets), Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG), and JavaScript. And Windows, despite the browser ballot that in Europe presents Windows users with a choice of browsers besides IE as a result of an antitrust settlement, remains a powerful means of distributing the software.

Some of IE8's gains probably can be ascribed to the growing use of Windows 7, which ships with that browser and is showing some signs of finally being a successor to Windows XP that people actually are embracing. Net Applications showed that the browsing usage of Windows 7 climbed from 12.7 percent to 13.7 percent from May to June; Windows Vista dropped from 15.2 percent to 14.7 percent; and Windows XP dropped from 62.6 percent to 62.4 percent.

Meanwhile, IE's biggest rival, Firefox, dropped in usage from 24.3 percent to 23.8 percent. And third-place Chrome climbed from 7.0 percent to 7.2 percent from May to June.

In fourth place, Apple's Safari rose from 4.8 percent to 4.9 percent, and Opera slipped from 2.4 percent to 2.3 percent.

The browser battles are shifting in direction dramatically as mobile phones and devices such as the iPad extend Web usage well beyond PCs. And things are very different on mobile devices.

Opera has years of experience on mobile devices, and indeed its Opera Mini version comes close to the regular computer version of Opera in terms of browser usage. Apple's Safari works on iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches, and Apple at least partially bans other browsers.

Mozilla is working on a mobile version of Firefox for Android and high-end Nokia phones and just submitted a tool to the Apple App Store it hopes will keep the desktop version of Firefox in sync with Apple iOS-based browsers. Google lets other browsers on devices with the Android operating system, but it comes with a browser as well.

Source: http://news.cnet.com/8301-30685_3-20009370-264.html

Has Safari 5 Sped Past Chrome?

The latest Apple Safari browser is not only fast, but includes extensions and a highly useful reader. By Preston Gralla, June 12, 2010 06:00 AM ET

Computerworld - The just-released Safari 5 ups the ante in the browser wars, with two major improvements: a performance boost to rival speed king Chrome, the highly useful Safari Reader, which makes it much easier to read multi-page Web articles.

The Safari Reader is the browser's most important new feature.

Safari 5 has a host of other useful new features as well, including extensions and better HTML 5 support. Is all this enough to put it at the top of browser pack? In this review, I take an in-depth look at Safari and let you know how it stacks up against the competition.

Reader takes central stage

By far the most important addition to Safari 5 is the Safari Reader. This nifty new feature is not only the best part of the new Safari, but it's also the best new feature that's come along in any browser for quite some time. It's so useful that it would be no surprise if all other browser makers eventually copied it.
When you come to a Web page that Safari identifies as an article, a gray Reader button appears on the right side of the Address Bar. Click the button, and a window appears over the top of your Web page, which displays the article, stripping out ads and extraneous layout. It shows you the text, graphics, videos and links in a very easy to read, scrollable display.

Want more info?

Ryan Faas offers his take on the new browser:
5 reasons to upgrade to Apple's Safari 5

Buttons at the bottom of the Reader window let you zoom in and out, e-mail the page or print it.

When you e-mail the page, it launches your default mail client and embeds the page link in the body of the message.
Printing, though, needs some help, because images inside articles don't print. Instead of the image, there is a large white space, with no option to instruct the Reader to print the image.

Still, that is a minor point. Anyone who frequently reads multi-page articles on the Web will welcome this new feature, which makes it far easier, more productive and more enjoyable to read long articles.

This has both pros and cons for Web publishers, who typically find there's a drop-off in article readership from page to page because people simply don't want to click to the next one. So people using the Reader are likely to read deeper into articles. On the other hand, it may also take revenue away from publishers, because no ads are displayed in the reader. (For more details, see my blog post "Is Apple's Safari 5 a publisher killer?")
Safari Reader, by the way, wasn't built by Apple from scratch. Rather, it's an adaption of the bookmarklet Readability, which is distributed under the Apache 2 Open Source license. Readability can be used with a variety of browsers. It lets you choose from multiple font styles and sizes, which Safari Reader doesn't do. But Safari Reader displays all pages of a multipage Web article in a single, scrollable window, while Readability only displays the current page you're on, not the entire article.

Who's the real speed king?

On its Web site, Apple calls Safari "The world's fastest Web browser." That has generated quite a bit of controversy on the Web, with some saying that Chrome is faster than Safari on both the PC and Mac.

On the SunSpider tests on the PC, Safari ran a close second to Chrome.

On the SunSpider tests on the Mac, Safari beat out Chrome.

The problem is that there are no widely accepted tests that can accurately gauge real-world Web browsing, which includes page loading, running JavaScript, performance on Web-based services such as Gmail, and so on. In my experience, Safari felt slightly faster than Chrome on the Mac, but on the PC, I was unable to discern any difference between the two.
I put Safari, Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer through the most widely accepted browser speed test, the SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark suite. I ran the tests three times on each browser on a Dell Dimension 9200 with a 2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad CPU running at 2.4 GHz and 2GB of RAM, running Windows Vista; and a MacBook Air running OS X 10.6.3.

On the Dell, Chrome completed the tests in an average 357ms, versus Safari's slightly slower 380ms. Firefox was well behind at 929ms, about 2.5 times slower than either browser. And Internet Explorer, at 5069ms, was more than 14 times slower than Chrome.

On the Mac, it was a different story, with Safari completing the tests in an average of 425ms compared to Chrome's 491ms. Firefox was again way behind at 1239ms.
So who is the speed king? In real-world use, you'll likely find Safari and Chrome indistinguishable.

Extensions come to Safari

Apple has announced that Safari now supports extensions. As of yet, there is no official extensions page, but Apple has begun allowing developers to join the program to create them. Some developers have jumped the gun and already built extensions, and if you're willing to do a bit of work, you can use them now.

While Apple's official extensions aren't ready, there are some available from third-party developers.

If you're using a PC, click the gear icon at the far right of Safari and choose Preferences -->Advanced. Check the box next to "Show Develop menu in menu bar" and exit the Advanced screen. Then press the Alt key, and a menu bar will appear at the top of Safari. Select Develop --> Enable Extensions.

On the Mac, you simply click Safari on the menu bar, then select Preferences and follow the same basic instructions as on a PC. The Develop menu will then appear automatically, unlike on the PC, which requires you to hit the Alt key.
You're now ready to use extensions. Apple's official site isn't up yet, so at this point you're limited to unofficial extensions that developers have created. A good place to start is the Safari Extensions page. There's not much noteworthy there yet, but it's worth checking out.

Browser wars

• Mozilla updates Firefox to crush Farmville complaints
• Microsoft updates IE9 preview, beefs up HTML5 support
• Mozilla patches 9 Firefox bugs, adds plug-in crash protection
• 5 reasons to upgrade to Apple's Safari 5
• Safari 5 in depth: Has it sped past Chrome?
• Apple's Safari 5 takes speed prize on Mac, Windows
• Google updates IE 'killer' plug-in
• Google's Chrome 'in retreat,' says Microsoft
• How to foil Web browser 'tabnapping'
• Google building speech capabilities for Chrome browser

More: Browser Topic Center

Click the link for any extension, and you'll be sent to the developer's page. After you've downloaded an extension, double-click it to install it.
To manage your extensions or to uninstall them in Windows, you click the gear icon at the far right of Safari and choose Preferences --> Advanced. You'll see an Extensions tab which was turned on when you checked the box next to "Show Develop menu in menu bar." On the Mac, you'll now have an Extensions tab in your Safari Preferences where you can manage or uninstall your extensions.

HTML 5 support

Safari 5, like Chrome and virtually all other browsers, is jumping on the HTML 5 bandwagon and promising support for HTML 5 features such as geolocation services and playing embedded videos. I've tested out both features on Safari, and they work as promised.

When you come to a Web site that uses geolocation services, you'll get a notice from that Web site asking permission to use geolocation services. You can then make use of all its features, such as showing businesses near your current location.

You can also turn off geolocation entirely by going to the Preferences screen, clicking the Security tab and unchecking the box next to Location services.

HTML 5 video lets you play videos embedded in Web pages without add-ins or additional technologies such as Flash. The controls for playing video are right on the page itself. As of yet, there's very little HTML 5-based video on the Web, although YouTube has an experimental program that you can try out. You can also see some demonstrations at Apple's HTML 5 Showcase.

Other goodies

You'll find a number of other changes in Safari 5 as well. When you type text into the Address Bar, it now searches your history and bookmarks, as virtually all other browsers do now. But the Address Bar doesn't do double-duty as a search box, as it does in Chrome.
Speaking of search, you now have the choice of using Bing as a search engine (previously, you could only use Google and Yahoo).
Finally, with Safari 5, you get better control of how your tabs function. You can, for example, tell Safari to open all links in new tabs, rather than in new instances of the browser.

Safari versus the other browsers

How does Safari stack up against Chrome, Firefox and Internet Explorer? When it comes to speed, Safari's at the head of the pack -- at least, on the Mac. Its new Reader feature is unique among browsers; as a result, for reading long Web articles, Safari is clearly the best browser.
However, even though Safari now supports extensions, at the moment there are few available, so it's far behind Firefox and even Chrome in this area. Its Address Bar is the least functional of all the browsers, and its bookmarking, which is no different from the last version, is still very basic and leaves something to be desired.

As for HTML 5 support, there are so few HTML 5-enabled sites and features these days, it's not yet particularly useful.

The upshot is that anyone who already uses Safari should upgrade immediately. Those who have yet to use Safari may well want to download it as well, if only to check out the Safari

Reader for reading long articles, and for experiencing speedy Web browsing.
Preston Gralla is a contributing editor to Computerworld.com and the author of more than 35 books, including How the Internet Works (Que, 2006).
Read more about Applications in Computerworld's Applications Topic Center. Source: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9177990/Safari_5_in_depth_Has_it_sped_past_Chrome_?taxonomyId=18&pageNumber=1 .

New Chrome 5 stable released today: Welcome, Mac and Linux!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010 | 8:59 AM

In our most recent beta release, we fired up all engines to bring to life our fastest version of Chrome to date.

Today, we’re bringing all this beta goodness to the stable channel so that it’s available to all Chrome users. We’re particularly excited to bring Chrome for Mac and Linux out of beta, and introduce Chrome’s first stable release for Mac and Linux users. You can read more about the Mac and Linux stable releases on the Google Mac and Chromium blogs respectively.

Today’s stable release also comes with a host of new features. You’ll be able to synchronize not only bookmarks across multiple computers, but also browser preferences -- including themes, homepage and startup settings, web content settings, preferred languages, and even page zoom settings. Meanwhile, for avid extensions users, you can enable each extension to work in incognito mode through the extensions manager.

Our stable release also incorporates HTML5 features such as Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop. For a taste of HTML5’s powerful features, try browsing through websites developed in HTML5 such as scribd.com, dragging and dropping attachments in Gmail, or by enabling the geolocation functionality in Google Maps. We’ve also given Chrome’s bookmark manager a facelift with HTML5:

Pedal to the Chrome metal: Our fastest beta to date for Windows, Mac and Linux

Tuesday, May 4, 2010 | 8:31 AM

Here in Aarhus, Denmark -- home of the V8 project, Chrome’s JavaScript engine -- we’ve been tuning, testing, and polishing the V8 engine to give Chrome a hefty boost in speed.

Today’s new beta release incorporates one of Chrome’s most significant speed and performance increases to date, with 30% and 35% improvement on the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks over the previous beta channel release. In fact, looking back in time, Chrome’s performance has improved by as much as 213% and 305% on these two benchmarks since our very first beta.





Today’s beta release also includes a handful of new features. Not too long ago, we introduced bookmark sync into the browser, which allows you to keep your bookmarks synchronized on multiple computers using your Google Account. Beta users can now synchronize not only bookmarks, but also browser preferences including themes, homepage and startup settings, web content settings, and language. By popular demand especially from avid Chrome extensions users, you can now install and use Chrome extensions while in incognito mode.

Under the hood, today’s release contains the goodness of some new HTML5 features, namely Geolocation APIs, App Cache, web sockets, and file drag-and-drop capabilities. Additionally, this is the first Chrome beta that features initial integration of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in with Chrome, so that you can browse a rich, dynamic web with added security and stability -- you’ll automatically receive security and feature updates for Flash Player with Chrome’s auto-update mechanism.

To try out all these new features, download Chrome on the Windows beta channel, or download the Mac or Linux betas.

Lastly, with this beta’s crazy speed improvements, we designed a series of equally unconventional speed tests for the browser. While the V8 and SunSpider benchmarks have their strengths, we felt that more could be done to measure speed on the browser. Here’s an early preview of how we designed, built, and implemented these speed tests. Stay tuned for the full results; we’ll post them here tomorrow.



Source: The Chrome Blog http://chrome.blogspot.com/

Here is the download link:

http://www.google.com/chrome?platform=linux

Chrome 5: Faster and better

Chrome 5: Faster and better
Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols, Cyber Cynic-Computer World

The first thing you'll notice with Google's new beta of its Chrome Web browser is that it's faster -- much faster -- than the last version. You don't need any fancy tests to see that. All you have to do is use it, and you'll see that it blows other browsers away.

But if numbers are what you want, here's what I found using the SunSpider JavaScript benchmarks. I ran these tests on a pair of Dell 530S desktop PCs. These older computers are powered by a 2.2GHz Intel Pentium E2200 dual-core processor with an 800MHz front-side bus. Each has 4GB of RAM, a 500GB SATA (Serial ATA) drive, and an Integrated Intel 3100 GMA (Graphics Media Accelerator) chipset. One was loaded with Windows XP SP3 and the other used MEPIS 8.0 desktop Linux. First, I ran the benchmarks with an old copy of Chrome 4, which I installed just for these tests, and then with Chrome 5.0.375.29, the latest beta. The average result was 660.4ms for Chrome 4 and 380.0 for Chrome 5.

Other Chrome tests haven't shown such significant improvements, but the bottom line is that the new Chrome is visibly faster than most other browsers. While it's true that Opera Software's Opera 10.53 is faster still, it's also true that Opera has been plagued with numerous serious security problems. For the best combination of speed and security you can't currently beat Chrome.



For sheer silliness, and to get an idea of just how fast Chrome really is in a very visual way, check out Google's Chrome video of Chrome pages loading with potato guns firing and Tesla coils blasting model pirate ships in the foreground.

The new Chrome has more than just speed and security going for it though. It also includes several new features. The one I like the most is expanding Chrome's bookmark sync, from just letting you keep your bookmarks in sync with multiple computers to letting you sync browser preferences such as themes, homepage and startup settings, and Web content settings across PCs. If you're like me and you use several computers this is one handy feature.

It also includes several HTML5 features such as Geolocation APIs (application programming interfaces), App Cache -- HTML5's answer to the old Google Gears for offline Web applications -- and file drag-and-drop capabilities.

This is also the first version of Chrome where, as promised, Adobe Flash Player is built-in. While Flash has recently had more than its fair share of serious security problems, bundling them together is probably a good thing since Chrome quietly and automatically updates itself, and now Flash, as soon as fixes are available. Considering how many security holes are exploited simply because users can't be bothered to update their software, I like Google's automatic update model.

What it all comes down to me is that Chrome is continuing to become my favorite Web browser. I still have lingering fondness for Firefox, but Chrome, which also runs on Linux, Macs, and Windows is moving into first place in the browser races.

http://www.google.com/chrome

Firefox 4 guns for speed

Mozilla hopes to release Firefox 4 in October or November, a new version that has speed among its top goals. -from Zdnet.com

"Performance is a huge, huge, huge thing for us," said Mike Beltzner, vice president of engineering for Firefox, in a webcast on Tuesday about plans for the browser. "We created the performance story, and we've got to keep at it."

Among other features planned for Firefox 4 — and Mozilla emphatically cautions that plans can change — are support for high-speed graphics and text through Direct2D on Windows; a tidier user interface with more prominent and powerful tabs; support for several newer web technologies; 64-bit versions; and compatibility with multi-touch interfaces.

Performance means any number of things in a browser. Among them: the time it takes to launch the program or to load a web page, the responsiveness of the user interface to commands such as opening new tabs, and the speed with which web-based JavaScript programs execute. Firefox programmers also will work on more perceptual speed improvements, Beltzner said, such as changing the order that web page elements appear on the screen and the appearance of the page-loading progress bar.

Mozilla's Firefox 4 design shows tabs above the address bar and a home-page button replaced by a home tab.
(Credit: Mozilla)

Speed is only one item on a long list of changes Mozilla has in mind for its five-year-old open-source Firefox browser. Improving Firefox is arguably a greater challenge now, though, for several reasons.

Below is  an early screen shot of Firefox 4 for Windows 7 showing the tabs above the address bar:

And with the bookmarks bar"

Below is Firefox 4 with tabs below the address bar under Windows 7:

And with the bookmarks toolbar shown:

First, there's new energy in competitors including Microsoft's Internet Explorer 9 and Chrome from web powerhouse Google. Second, making abrupt changes is harder without ruffling feathers among its large user base — Firefox accounts for roughly a quarter of the browser usage worldwide. Third, Firefox is expanding from PCs to mobile phones and tablets with very different hardware requirements. Last, a long list of new technologies are profoundly transforming browsers into a foundation for web applications, but many of those advancements are far from settled. Beltzner recognises the challenges.

"We are in it to win it," Beltzner said. "It's no longer the case where it's all easy wins. There's hard work to be done here. We have to make sure we're the ones leading the charge in keeping the web open for users."

Scheduling

Mozilla established a Firefox 3.6, 3.7 and 4.0 release plan in 2009, but the organisation warned early this year that the browser schedule was changing. Tuesday's webcast offered a new schedule with no Firefox 3.7.

One key feature of 3.7 called out-of-process plug-ins, which moves plug-ins such as Adobe Systems' Flash Player to their own separate memory area for better stability, was advanced to Firefox 3.6.4, code-named Lorentz and in beta testing right now. Meanwhile, Mozilla concluded it needed more time for a planned user-interface overhaul and to be liberated by a "rebooted" plan for a new extensions foundation called Jetpack.

"I think we need to get to a first beta by the end of June", before the Mozilla Summit in early July, he said. Releasing that version "puts us in a position where we can ship [the final version] somewhere in October or November".

Mozilla's new schedule for releasing Firefox 4 — if all goes well....November 2010.
(Credit: Mozilla)

Given past experience, this deadline may not be met. Firefox 3.6 had been due in that time frame in 2009 and slipped into early 2010. "This is an aggressive schedule to be sure. We have to focus the efforts of projects already under way so it can come together to be a really great Firefox 4," Beltzner said. And programmers will have to prove the merit of any new projects very soon if they want them included.

So what else is new?

Beltzner grouped the Firefox 4 plan into three broad areas of interest: features for browser users, features for web developers, and underlying platform features.

Tabs are one area of change for users. Tabs will be above the address bar, as is the case with Chrome, and a home tab replaces the home button. In addition, narrower application tabs can be dedicated to various web apps. Instead of a menu bar across the top, there's a single Firefox button with a drop-down menu. Typing in the address bar can be used to switch to other tabs.

One change that had been bandied about, though — a unification of the address bar and the search bar, a la Chrome — didn't appear in Beltzner's designs.

Mozilla hopes to change some dialog boxes to make them more effective. Two examples are the option for Firefox to remember a website's password and to permit a website to use the browser user's physical location.

Planned for Firefox 4 will be a more elaborate mechanism to see what privileges a person has granted to various websites.
(Credit: Mozilla)

Mozilla has always been motivated by the idea of giving the user control, and it's hoping the new Firefox will go further with a revamped control panel for managing passwords, cookies, pop-up blocking, geolocation, local data storage, and related details. Users could see what permissions have been granted to websites for each category, or alternatively, see which various permissions a specific site has.

Below is an early screen shot of Firefox 4 running on Linux with a brown theme:

Significant changes to the user interface can lead to confusion, but in the long run, the pain can be worthwhile, Beltzner said. Sometimes, he said, "we're going to have to do the uncomfortable thing."

For developers, Mozilla also has a number of features planned for Firefox 4.
For web applications, the Firefox 4 plan includes support for WebSockets, a mechanism for easier communication between the browser and a web server. And as for dealing with the new class of touch-enabled devices, which often don't have a keyboard or mouse, Firefox should be able to let web developers build pages controlled with a multi-touch interface.

The heart of web programming is Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), and Mozilla is building into Firefox a new HTML5 "parser", the part of the browser that interprets the web page code. The new parser can handle Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG) and mathematical equations interleaved with the rest of a web page, runs as a separate computing process to improve browser responsiveness, and fixes "dozens" of long-standing bugs on the previous parser, Mozilla said.

In industry shorthand, HTML5 often stands for many new technologies that aren't part of the actual HTML5 specification or even the broader HTML renovation effort.
Firefox 4 will support some of those, too, but two important ones are only tentative at this stage: the newer Indexed DB effort designed to improve how information from a website is stored locally on a computer, and the WebGL effort to build hardware-accelerated 3D graphics into the web. Required driver support for graphics chips complicates WebGL, and the Indexed DB specification isn't likely to be finished in time, Beltzner said.

For the movement to sidestep Flash with web technologies, Firefox 4 has a few features planned. Some newer aspects of Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), used for formatting, are set to be supported, including transitions that can animate the transformation of one web element into another. Firefox 4 also is expected to support more of the newer CSS3 specification.

Areas of Firefox that Mozilla is hoping to improve
(Credit: Mozilla)

Also stepping on Flash's toes will be support for SMIL, the Synchronised Multimedia Integration Language that can be used for some animation chores, and faster performance with the 2D drawing interface called Canvas.

Under the hood

Performance improvements to Firefox will come through improvements to the underlying software. One significant change coming is JaegerMonkey, which combines Firefox's current JavaScript engine with elements of those used in Chrome and Safari browsers.
"JaegerMonkey has reached a halfway point: we've closed about half the performance gap between our baseline performance and the competition," JaegerMonkey programmer David Mandelin said in a blog post on Monday. However, he added, "you can build a browser with JM [JaegerMonkey] today, but you probably won't get too far before crashing. Fixing that is next on my list."

Also on the Firefox 4 plan is support for 64-bit processors. Operating systems have now made the jump in earnest, but not all software has followed suit.
Other hardware changes planned for Firefox 4 include support for Direct2D on Windows, a feature that lets the browser tap into the engine for hardware-accelerated graphics and text. That support exists on Windows 7 and the latest service pack of Vista, but here again, "driver hell" is a risk.

Support for Windows 7 interface features including Aero peek, jump lists, and icons with progress bars are also on the to-do list for Firefox 4.
Support for cameras and microphones is only a tentative goal, as is tighter integration with Mac OS X.

Below are some early Mac OSX Firefox 4 design screen shots with tabs below:

And with the bookmarks bar:

Firefox 4 will offer tabs at the top of the address bar seen below:

And with the bookmarks bar:

 Deeper under the covers, for security and stability reasons, Mozilla is splitting Firefox into separate memory areas with a project called Electrolysis. Its first element, out-of-process plug-ins (OOPP), is the chief feature of Firefox 3.6.4, but more is planned for Firefox 4. The new Jetpack interface moves add-ons to a separate memory area, too. Firefox 4, though, won't get the broader sandboxing design in Google's Chrome, in which browser tabs are separated from one other.

These plumbing details might sound arcane, but they're important as browsers become a foundation for ever-increasing amounts of computing chores. A Monday blog post from Firefox programmer Vladimir Vukicevic captured the essence of the matter.

"Today's web browser is in many ways acting like a miniature full operating system," Vukicevic said.

Source: http://www.zdnet.com.au/firefox-4-guns-for-speed-339303057.htm