Battle of Browsers : Firefox 4 vs Chrome 10 vs and IE 9

On 14th March, Microsoft released the next generation web browser IE 9, an updated version of Internet Explorer.

With the release of IE 9 by Microsoft, browsers battle have already started in an Internet. Few days ago, Mozilla released Firefox 4.0 RC while Google Chrome recently updated to version 10.0 and rolled out a new Settings interface.All three major browsers dubbed themselves as the fastest browser of planet and also claimed they have improved and advanced ‘JavaScript Engine’ and supports HTML5. And yes of course, all three major web browsers supports the latest web standards and provide speedy page rendering.But it is quite confusing to determine the best browsers among them.

We used to make a joke on Internet Explorer (IE) saying, “IE is the number one browser to download number one browsers Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox” . But with the release of IE 9, experts says scenario might changed, because IE 9 seems promising browser and supports the latest web standards. Tech Pundit around the web are gossiping, “IE 9 is a promising web browsers, that Microsoft has ever made”.

People who are sticking with Google Chrome and Mozilla Firefox, Will switch back to Internet Explorer? Definitely Not, people will not switch back to IE9 who are using Chrome or Firefox though IE is claimed as fastest browser. In a test performed by various firms suggests that with added GPU acceleration (support for Hardware acceleration) IE 9 is faster than others. Arstechnica reported, “Due to added GPU acceleration, Internet Explorer 9 feels very fast : Even scripting-heavy Web applications render quickly, animate smoothly, and perform well.” However Firefox 4.0 and Chrome 11.0 are also going to add this GPU acceleration in their final release, So does this matter to us ? No, Not at all. It’s just for record saying, which browser have used GPU first ? Final Version of Firefox 4.0 is coming on March 22.

But Gigaom suggested, Google Chrome is ahead of browsers. Gigaom says, in Acid3 test Chrome marks 100 out of 100. Not only in Acid3 test but, IE9 lags behind Chrome, Firefox,Opera and Safari in the HTML5 test, Kraken JavaScript benchmark. While Arstechnica says, on the SunSpider Benchmark, IE9 feels very fast. Below are the images of various tests:

Acid3 TestAcid3 is a benchmark which checks how well a browser follows selected web standards.

HTML5 Test

Kraken

Kraken tests how well a browser handles JavaScript and is supposed to simulate a number of different “real world” scenarios.

SunSpider Benchmark

One thing is that, IE9 follow web standards though it lack some standards. I must say, IE 9 has got a new design with one click access to favorite sites. They have redesigned their tab to improve browsing experience and as Google Chrome IE9 comes with combined address and search bar. And another great thing is that, Now we can download other browsers much more easily because IE Download Manager keeps a running list of the files which are being downloaded from the Internet. No doubt now, IE9 looks clean and simple and has also widen the screen area since Microsoft trimmed down their browser UIs. It is said that, with default settings, IE9 is now the most space-efficient browser on the world.

However IE9 is better among IE but not among browsers, and we must appreciate an effort of Microsoft. Microsoft is trying to show that, they are also capable of making next generation browser. And Microsoft is trying to follow web standards, it’s a good news.

Mozilla Firefox and Google Supports thousands of add-ons and extensions respectively, but I’ve not heard IE9 provides such add-ons and extensions. And browsers without extension and add-ons are useless, at least for me. Also, sadly IE is only for Windows and can be used only on Vista and Windows 7. IE9 cannot be used on XP either. But Firefox and Chrome can be used in any OS.

I’m using Chrome as major browser in Windows and Firefox as major browser in Ubuntu as Google Chrome do not render Unicode properly in Ubuntu. Google Chrome and Firefox are the best browsers for me. Data shows,most people are still using IE but majority of population is moving towards Chrome and Firefox leaving IE behind. Even our blog stats shows, majority of blog viewers are using Firefox and Chrome though majority are using Windows as their Operating System.

Stats of 2010 May – 2011 March