The Great Browser Race

First up, Mozilla. The guys behind the Firefox franchise lashed back Wednesday, saying Chrome may be able to beat its current browser -- but its upcoming 3.1 version will leave it in the dust. The next Firefox, now under development with a targeted 2008 release, switches to a new JavaScript engine called TraceMonkey. Its creators say outperforming Chrome's heavily hyped V8 JavaScript platform won't be a problem.

The company's own speed tests, conducted with the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark system, show Firefox 3.1 coming in a full 28 percent faster than Chrome on a Windows XP machine and 16 percent faster on a Vista computer. Percentages aside, the actual time difference amounts to about 500 milliseconds, give or take, in each scenario.

Independent Tests


All right, so how about some independent testing? As Mozilla admits, almost all matchups between Chrome and IE or Chrome and Firefox 3.0.1 show Chrome sweeping the competition. When it comes to Firefox 3.1, though, things do get less clear cut.

Lifehacker measured Firefox 3.1 against Chrome and Internet Explorer 8 using three separate scales: initial startup time, JavaScript/CSS usage, and memory usage. For startup, Chrome was the winner over both its competitors. Chrome and Firefox tied on this JavaScript race, and Firefox won when it came to memory. So all put together, it's basically a draw between the two underdogs when it comes to speed with their next-generation releases, and Mozilla may be able to edge a lead. (Sorry, IE.)

Finding the Winner

In the end, this race could become anyone's game. Given that Chrome is only in its first beta and Firefox 3.1 is early in its development, either browser could easily end up stealing the show.

As for awareness, while Mozilla's CEO went on the record as saying he wasn't worried about Chrome, clearly, the company is doing careful comparisons. Mozilla's chief technology officer, Brendan Eich, said his team is "very much in the game and moving fast," and that "reports of [its] death are greatly exaggerated." Eich also suggested, albeit jokingly, that they should rename TraceMonkey to "V10" -- an obvious light-hearted jab at Google.

One thing's for sure: The race isn't over. Count on seeing more comparisons and claims as each product advances over the coming months. Ultimately, though, we're talking differences of half a second between the two, so there's no need to fret over the fractions. Find the browser you like best and stick with it. If that browser happens to be IE, however, be aware that you're surfing 42 times slower than you could be with one of the other alternatives.