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Web Browser Grand Prix 7: Firefox 7, Chrome 14, Opera 11.51

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Mozilla released the hotly-anticipated Firefox 7 two days ago. Does it deliver on the promise of speed and memory improvements? Does Firefox 7 have what it takes to dethrone current Web Browser Grand Prix champion, Google Chrome? Read on to find out!

Although it's only been one month since Web Browser Grand Prix VI: Firefox 6, Chrome 13, And Mac OS X Lion, the browser wars show no signs of subsiding. The last 30 days were just as feverish as those that came before. But before we get down to business, let's get all caught up on the latest in this epic saga.

Recent Events

08/30/11: Opera updates from version 11.50 to 11.51
09/16/11: Google Releases Chrome 14
09/27/11: Mozilla Releases Firefox 7
09/29/11: Futuremark releases an open beta for the next version of Peacekeeper, announced exclusively here on Tom's Hardware.
Ongoing: Microsoft Internet Explorer market share continues to plummet, while Google Chrome market share continues meteoric rise.

Recent Drama

05/04/11: Google releases "fixed" versions of Apple's SunSpider and Mozilla's Kraken JavaScript benchmarks. We missed this the first time around.
09/01/11: David Storey, emblematic Opera developer and evangelist, leaves Opera for a new gig at Motorola, which quickly gets eaten up by Opera's arch-rival Google. Doh. Good luck, Dave!
09/20/11: Yet another Mozilla developer incites fear and chaos by suggesting a five week (or shorter) Firefox release cycle.
09/21/11: This idea is quickly rejected.
09/22/11: Another camp inside Mozilla proposes Firefox ESR (Extended Support Release) for enterprise use. ESR is to be five times slower than the standard Firefox releases.
9/29/11: Even more absurdity from Mozilla developers, this time floating the idea of banning Java to thwart security threats.

What's New In Web Browser Grand Prix 7?

We've added more composite scoring, brand new startup time tests, and retired the raw placing tables. Essentially, the benchmark suite receives yet another handful of additional refinements aimed at updating tests, enhancing accuracy, improving analysis, and most noticeable of all, yielding faster results. Hey, Firefox 7 was just released the day before yesterday! With 40+ benchmarks, multiple iterations per benchmark, and five Web browsers, this is nothing short of a monumental effort.

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gerchokas 09/30/2011 6:33 AM
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shiftmx112 09/30/2011 7:04 AM
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-10+

Quote :Enjoy it while you can Firefox fans


Indeed. I have been quite content with FF8 though.

soccerdocks 09/30/2011 7:04 AM
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-8+

Until another browser beats Chrome in the speed/performance benchmarks I'm sticking with it.

iam2thecrowe 09/30/2011 7:19 AM
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-1+

im sticking with IE, its perfectly fast enough and stable and why should I have to install another browser when it works perfectly fine?

JOSHSKORN 09/30/2011 7:25 AM
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-6+

I'm on FF10. :D Nightly 64-bit!

compton 09/30/2011 7:37 AM
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-4+

I have to say, I do really like chrome. I stopped using Firefox as much one I tried the chrome beta, and now I use IE9 and chrome all the time. I used opera for a while, but Netflix streaming doesn't work with it, nor do many other sites I use.

Now that IE is good again, I can't fault anyone for using it in lieu of the others.

makaveli316 09/30/2011 7:48 AM
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-20+

"Until another browser beats Chrome in the speed/performance benchmarks I'm sticking with it."

lol people still think they can feel the difference in terms of speed in real world performance and there's still people that doesn't use a browser for their needs and preferences, but just because they have seen some silly benchmark.
Ridiculous. I bet those are the same people that are always complaining in the forums about crashes, viruses and blue screens.

killik 09/30/2011 8:46 AM
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-11+

Even better yet,if you use FF7 with the MemoryFox addon,Firefox simply obliterates the competition.try it for yourself.

killik 09/30/2011 8:47 AM
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Even better yet,if you use FF7 with the MemoryFox addon,Firefox simply obliterates the competition in the memory management department.try it for yourself.

frostmachine 09/30/2011 9:11 AM
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-7+

I noticed firefox will use progressively more memory. Even if it's just refreshing the same pages. I use firefox, opera n chrome, keeping them open 24hr/day. It can go from intial 100mb to over 500mb. I don't see this in the other browsers.

Anonymous 09/30/2011 9:31 AM
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Anonymous 09/30/2011 9:36 AM
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-5+

The Encog Silverlight result is wrong. In the graph IE9 comes third with Firefox fourth, but your conclusions are,
Firefox 7 shows significant improvement over version 6, moving up to third place. As a result, IE9 drops to fourth.

Anonymous 09/30/2011 9:41 AM
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-1+

How on earth can Firefox be winner in memory manaegment? Chrome and IE are much better....

buzznut 09/30/2011 9:53 AM
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jdwii 09/30/2011 10:07 AM
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Anonymous 09/30/2011 11:30 AM
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-13+

This article (as well as the preceding series of articles) is a great example of how amateur journalism can be misleading, or just downright wrong.

On the surface, everything looks good - the author sets out a methodology, clearly presents the results, and draws conclusions based on them. Unfortunately, in doing so he reveals his severely lacking knowledge of testing methodology, the browsers themselves, as well as how one interprets the results of benchmarks.

To aggregate across criteria such as "performance" and "standards compliance" (never mind the fact that HTML5 hasn't yet been drawn up), using an arbitrary weighting system, and then conclude that one browser beats other "overall" is nonsensical.

Nowhere has the author talked about relevance (this is critical) or statistical significance of his tests. I'm sure he put in a lot of effort into the article, and that it was written out of the best of intentions; however, this article remains a jumble of random tests clumsily grouped together. For example, can the author explain to the readers why the removal of SVG fonts in the ACID3 test is important? Should browsers have support for SVG fonts? Should one test for it? If he can't, he's just mechanically running benchmarks that he's found on the internet.

Obviously it's easier to criticise - but it's much more beneficial for people to actually try the browsers out for themselves (it is free after all) than to read this kind of poorly conducted "showdown".

lassik 09/30/2011 12:07 PM
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FF7 was always my favourite, it had the best storyline. :)

Anonymous 09/30/2011 12:17 PM
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http://blog.mozilla.com/futurerele [...] efoxbeta8/

Firefox 8.0 Beta is now available.

jtt283 09/30/2011 1:16 PM
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Some add-in crash issues in FF a couple months ago forced me to use IE again for a while. Wow, I never realized how many sites had so many ads, and ways to show them! I'm glad FF is more stable again so I can use it once more, although there are still a couple of sites where IE9 is more compatible.

eddieroolz 09/30/2011 1:20 PM
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--2+

Firefox 7 as the winner of Grand Prix!?! I gotta go check if hell has frozen over right now!

But on a more serious tone, I honestly thought Chrome had this one again. Looking at the charts my impression was that Firefox never really won anything by significant margins.

Also, I hope Internet Explorer 10 will arrive soon. My short experience with IE10 under Windows 8 was very pleasant, even better than that of IE9.


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