Chrome and Firefox Browser Betas Duke it Out in Speed Tests

Speed tests are starting to come in from several sources for the updated beta versions of the Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox browsers. Chrome is out in its third beta revision, and the beta of Firefox 3.1 adds TraceMonkey functionality for improved JavaScript performance. Better Javascript performance promises to be a big attraction going forward in both browsers, and could substantially speed up how applications hosted online perform. Here are some of the latest speed results.

CNet and ZDNet U.K. are reporting that the latest version 0.3.154.9 of Chrome has 37 percent faster JavaScript performance than the the initial beta version that arrived two months ago. Depending on which performance tests you look at, the new TraceMonkey-enhanced Firefox 3.1 beta browser and Chrome are close to neck-and-neck.

On Google's JavaScript test, Chrome is faster than the new beta of Firefox, but on the SunSpider test, Chrome falls just behind it. As far as raw speed goes, the Minefield variant of Firefox, which we wrote about here, performs very well, although CNet's tests show it slightly behind TraceMonkey-enhanced Firefox 3.1.

Most notably of all, all of these open source browsers are significantly outperforming beta 2 of the Internet Explorer 8 browser. Internet Explorer continues to have commanding market share, but it's very clear that the open source browsers are where the most innovation is going on.

For our latest collection of tools and resources for Chrome, see this post.