Web Browser Grand Prix 4: Firefox 4 Goes Final

Features
By Adam Overa
published

It's official! After four months of delays, twelve betas, and two RCs, Firefox 4 has gone final. But after all that, does this fox still have teeth? Can Internet Explorer 9 retain the WBGP title, or will it become the shortest-lived champion to date?

Performance Benchmarks: Page Load Times

Google

No surprise here; Google Chrome is the fastest Web browser at loading the Google home page. Safari, Firefox 4, IE9, and Opera follow closely behind. But keep the scale in perspective. All five browsers finish in slightly over one-tenth of a second.

YouTube

Chrome is the fastest at loading YouTube, another Google property. Placing second, slightly over a tenth of a second behind Chrome, is Webkit cousin Apple Safari. The new Firefox again places third with IE9 close behind in fourth. Opera trails by less than a tenth of a second to place fifth.

Yahoo!

For the third time in a row, Chrome takes first place and Safari second. The new IE9 earns a third-place finish. Opera and Firefox 4 trail far behind in fourth and fifth (respectively), both taking around 1.4 seconds to load Yahoo.

Amazon

Microsoft Internet Explorer and Apple Safari finish in a surprise tie for first place. Second-place finisher Google Chrome and third-place finisher Mozilla Firefox nearly tie as well. Opera again brings up the rear, a little over a tenth of a second behind Firefox 4.

Twitter

WBGP3-champion IE9 places first, loading Twitter in less than half the time of second-place finisher Safari. The new Firefox 4 follows closely in third with Chrome in fourth, followed by Opera.

Apple Safari consistently loads pages before most of the other Web browsers. While Chrome has more first-place finishes, its speed falters on Amazon and Twitter. IE9 is a mix of first and fourth place finishes, putting it in the middle. The new Firefox drags behind IE9 to take an overall fourth. The real surprise here is Opera, which takes last-place nearly every metric.

Adam Overa
156 Comments Comment from the forums
  • reprotected
    Because people can't wait for half a second. I never had a single rendering problem with any of my browsers.
    Reply
  • LuckyDucky7
    Adblock Plus, Adblock Plus, Adblock Plus.

    That pretty much sums it up. No amount of optimization will help you when it comes to loading web pages if you have a large amount of adframes and such to slow you down.

    So have your super-fast IE9: I bet the ads will appreciate loading quick too.
    Reply
  • @ericburnby

    you must enjoy all those ads, in real world the difference in speed is negligible, but i sure has hell appreciate a rock stable browser, which is not what IE is, now saying that i have to say IE9 is definitely light years ahead of it's predecessor

    have used all 3 browser and found FF to be the most stable by far
    Reply
  • @ StableBrowser,

    You must enjoy being an ignorant Fx fanboy. IE9 comes with adblocking features without needing any extensions.
    Reply
  • nd22
    IE9 is indeed fast, but my question relates to Safari, a browser created specifically for Mac, not for Windows. On Mac Safari is incredible fast, why Tom’s did not tested Safari on the platform which it was designed for?
    Reply
  • @luckyducky7

    "Adblock Plus, Adblock Plus, Adblock Plus.

    That pretty much sums it up. No amount of optimization will help you when it comes to loading web pages if you have a large amount of adframes and such to slow you down.

    So have your super-fast IE9: I bet the ads will appreciate loading quick too."

    Not if you use tracking protection.
    Reply
  • adamovera
    nd22IE9 is indeed fast, but my question relates to Safari, a browser created specifically for Mac, not for Windows. On Mac Safari is incredible fast, why Tom’s did not tested Safari on the platform which it was designed for?It is my hope that we'll be able to do that. Hopefully for the next major Safari release. If that's at the same time as Lion, then we might have to use the latest updated Snow Leopard for time reasons.
    Reply
  • jsowoc
    Re: Acid3
    This is why Firefox doesn't get 100:
    http://limi.net/articles/firefox-acid3/
    Reply
  • I loaded up IE today because the Chase website gives me problems with Chrome, and I was surprised by how fast IE9 is now. Loading pages seemingly as fast or faster then chrome. I even thought of switching it to my primary browser, but the lack of Ad-block support killed it. It is a necessary feature and every browser should have it or something like it these days.
    Reply
  • andy5174
    The latest Chrome is indeed pretty fast, but I just can't live without Tab Mix Plus which is only available to Firefox. Someone please write a similar add-on for Chrome!!!
    Reply