Last December we started this site with a little article about the Internet Browser and Operating System Wars , and their statistics as of that day.  Apple was heating up the market with its launch of Safari as a multi platform browser.  Even then they were entering a market dominated by Firefox, yet there are some more people looking to get in and flex their cult like following with more services.  Since then, other browsers have entered into the mix.  Google Chrome , was introduced a few short weeks ago... amidst the June 17th launch of Firefox 3 and the record downloads in a 24 hours period , and Microsoft finally coming to the table with something worthwhile; Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 .

We decided to put these browsers through and usual test and similate everyday experiences.  We are going to install all four browsers into a Virtual machine using VM Ware on our Macbook Pro.  The operating system of choice is Windows XP.  Main reason for this is Google Chrome's incompatibility with Mac OS X fo the time being.

Where To Download Each Browser:

Firefox 3

Internet Explorer Beta 2

Safari

Google Chrome

Statistically speaking, Firefox is dominating its competitors.  Firefox has controlled the web browser market much like Google controls the search market, however not quite to the same extent.  Firefox has jumped from 36.3% to a dominating 43.7%.  The word dominating ensues they are the end all.  They might as well be, since Firefox is not in the Operating System business, people have to go out of their way to download that product.  The only time 43.7% of people do anything about something, is when it’s really worth their time.

Let's see what we found....

Timed Installs:

Timed Installs entail navigating to a website, downloading the application ( the browser in this case ), and installing the application.  Installing includes any possible option within setup that may or may not have to be changed.

 Firefox 3

Install - 1 Minute, 31 seconds to the Firefox Welcome Page

Failed Acid 3 Test

Loading www.commerceonline.com:
Firefox 3 - processor 100%

Loading www.youtube.com and start playing one video:
Firefox 3.0 - had to install latest flash player and then retry. 5.4 seconds after flash install

Loading www.break.com ( actual link - http://media1.break.com/RealTime/mostviewed/daily/mostviewed1.html ) and start playing one video.  We stuck to the same video on each one.
Firefox - 8.7 seconds

Launch time Warm Start*: 00:01.2 seconds – default site – “about:blank”
Fresh Launch after Cold Start*: 00:06.3 seconds – default site – “about:blank"

Internet Explorer 2 Beta

Install - 6 minutes, 1 second till you have to reboot.  one complete minute to reboot the virtual machine.  Then another minute to open Internet Explorer Beta 2 and go through it's initial setup options.  Complete time was 8 minutes and 5 seconds.

Failed Acid 3 Test

 Safari 3

Install - 2 minutes, 15 seconds to the Apple Welcome Page < http://www.apple.com/startpage/ >

Pro's - Quick install, operation very similar to Firefox, seems to appropriate resources wisely

Con's - Buggy in windows, Not Acid 3 worthy

Failed Acid 3 Test

Loading www.commerceonline.com:
Safari 3 - processor sub 30% ish

Loading www.youtube.com and start playing one video:
Safari - 5.6 seconds

Loading www.break.com ( actual link - http://media1.break.com/RealTime/mostviewed/daily/mostviewed1.html ) and start playing one video.  We stuck to the same video on each one.
Safari - 6.0 seconds

Launch time Warm Boot*: 00:01.2 seconds – default site – “about:blank”
Fresh Launch Cold Start (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting ): 00:09.8 seconds – default site – “about:blank”
 

Google Chrome

Install - - 1 minute, 23 seconds –
*Note - Google Chrome does not have a start page. After realizing that aspect, it still only took the aforementioned length of time.

Pro's - Super fast install, memory enhancements claimed to reduce load, but not seen this time,

Con's - Only made for Windows, still new and largely untested, Not Acid 3 worthy
 

Failed Acid 3 Test

Loading www.commerceonline.com:
Chrome - processor 50% ish

Loading www.youtube.com and start playing one video:
Google Chrome - had to install latest flash player and then retry. Even after I already installed it for Firefox.  When we weren't experiencing burps that could have been internet related we generally saw start times in about 4.5 seconds

Loading www.break.com ( actual link - http://media1.break.com/RealTime/mostviewed/daily/mostviewed1.html ) and start playing one video.  We stuck to the same video on each one.
Google Chrome - 8.9 seconds

Launch time Warm Start*: 00:00.8 seconds – default site – “about:blank”
Fresh Launch Cold Start (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting ) (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Booting ): 00:04.1 seconds – default site – “about:blank”
 

Please note that these tests are based on single browsing capabilities.  We are going to use these four browsers on a Windows PC over the course of the next 4 months and take notes to bring back to our readers.  Opera was not included in our testing, but may be for future reference.

As of today, the standings for the Browser Statistical (http://www.w3schools.com/browsers/browsers_stats.asp ) Wars are as follows:

IE 7 – 26.0%
IE 6 – 24.5%
IE 5 – 0.1%
Firefox – 43.7%
Mozilla – 0.5%
Safari – 2.6%
Opera – 2.1%

Final Test

Run each Internet Browser and open 8 tabs.  For this test we have chosen the to load; http://www.msn.com in each tab of each browser.  The test will proceed as follows:  timing will commence upon hitting the application’s shortcut icon and will end once the eighth tab has finished loading.  We will be using keyboard shortcut CTRL + T to open new tabs and CTRL + C to copy the url each and every time.

Safari: Cold Start - 31.1 seconds, Warm Start – 14.1 seconds
Chrome: 30.1 seconds, Warm Start – 23.6 seconds
Firefox: 38.7 seconds, Warm Start – 14.6 seconds
IE 8 Beta: IE 8 hung up opening new tabs while the first one loaded the first time I tried this and I stopped the timer at 1 minute 2 seconds closed IE and did it again.  This time it ran in 35.8 seconds.  We noticed IE has major problems with opening new tabs before the original tab has loaded.  This will alter its time greatly and will pose for perhaps in accurate depictions of how long it can really take to do this.  The 35.8 seconds, was the fastest we were able to get it done.

To give Google a slight advantage, we ran the same test loading http://maps.google.com .  Below are the results:

Safari: Warm Start – 15.5 seconds
Chrome: Warm Start – 20.2 seconds
Firefox: Warm Start – 14.8 seconds
IE 8 Beta: Warm Start – 28.3 seconds
 

So based on these results why don’t you enlighten us with some comments as to who makes the best web browser, because we can see who makes the fastest… but that line is thin, with Safari and Google battling it out… It leaves browser functionality, and integration to today’s changing world a desired reach for obtaining new users.

Stay tuned, Oscot will be making a conscientious effort to update this site daily with Mac and Windows related news.  If you have anything you would like for us to cover, just drop us an email.