Web Browser Grand Prix 4: Firefox 4 Goes Final

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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.