Microsoft has published a document suggesting that IE8 is faster than either either Firefox or Chrome

I don't normally republish blogs, but I see a lot of debate in here over the topic. I know that you, like me, have your own opinions and thought's.... I'm not posting this for debate...only to inform you what is being put out there....

Microsoft has published a document (video here) which examines the issues involved in carrying out benchmarking and performance analysis on browsers. Contained in this document is a chart which suggests that IE8 is faster at rendering many of the Internet’s top 25 website (as measured by comScore) than either either Mozilla’s Firefox or Google’s Chrome.

Here’s the chart:

Out of the 25 sites listed, IE8 is fastest on twelve of them, while Chrome wins on nine and Firefox 3.0.5 isonly first across the finish line for only four sites. So how does this fit in with all the testing which seems to suggest that both Firefox and Chrome as faster (much faster) than IE8?

Well, while I can’t flaw the testing process (which does seem quite thorough), I do feel that the choice of test pages are pretty poor. Goes Google’s landing page really give the browser much of a workout? Yahoo!? Wikipedia? Sure, these landing pages are very, very popular, but most are very tight and highly optimized. What I’d like to see is how the browsers compare when you’re looking at a results page on Google or a really big entry on Wikipedia or when looking at the store on Apple’s site. If you’re just visiting the landing sites of these selection of site, then IE8 will be faster about half the time, what I’d really like to see is how it performs as you’re browsing away from the landing page and actually start doing something on the site you’re visiting.

So, while I’m reasonably happy with the way the test was done, I feel that the choice of sites was poor and don’t reflect well what people do with their browsers. Also, my experience with the different browsers seems to support my belief that IE is not the fastest for general browsing.

Posted by Adrian Kingsley-Hughes @ 7:20 am
http://blogs.zdnet.com/

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Like I said I'm not debating this, so please keep your remarks relevant with that in mind.

--Eric

Tags: chrome, firefox, ie8, microsoft

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Comment by MerryMarjie on March 19, 2009 at 5:33pm: I'd love to check the speed on IE8 but I get continuous screens of "Internet Explorer has stopped..." and then sometimes the "Tab has been reconnected" popup. All very informational, doncha know, but really, really, really irritating.

Comment by dr.lono on March 16, 2009 at 1:03pm: I'll give IE8 a try but IE always seems to be a HUGE resource hog. :\

Comment by Eric L. on March 14, 2009 at 4:34pm: As I thought, most of you agree with me.... Everyone has their favorite flavor, one flavor isn't necessarily better than the next... it's all personal preference. And like R_Gerard said...there are to many variables for anyone to really judge one program over another.

I found it interesting that this topic got posted so many times, and the avenues that people took it down, as a debate. I'm glad that everyone that replied to this kept it in check and was understanding that it's ok to like one over another. I'm sorry I just find it interesting how humans can interact with each other, and it is possible to keep it all civil, and relevant.

Comment by Keith Stoneberger on March 14, 2009 at 2:00pm: Apple claims they are better than Microsoft, OpenSource calims there OS is better than anyone. It is just a matter of preference. I am running Vista and IE8 and Firefox runs the same for me. It also depends on the websites. The majority of them works better with IE and some works better with Firefox. IE8 RC1 is better than the previous browsers and has the same crash features and site compatability as Firefox.

Comment by Oren on March 14, 2009 at 10:33am: I personally just don't care about a fraction of a second.

Comment by Connor Bryant on March 14, 2009 at 9:59am: all right IE!

Comment by lenswipe on March 14, 2009 at 6:35am: yeah they claimed that vista was faster than xp and look what happened there...

Comment by John on March 14, 2009 at 6:21am: I have used firefox (good) IE7 (iffy) chrome (very good) opera (pretty good). Now I am going to try IE8; if I don't like it, I will stay with Chrome.

Comment by Jake on March 14, 2009 at 5:15am: I think i'll stick with firefox

Comment by teddy on March 14, 2009 at 2:14am: Well, browswers to me are a lot like women. I always seem to have some kind of problem/issue or another eventually, so I just pick one and go with it.