New Browser Comparisons IE8 Vs Firefox 3 Vs Chrome 

I’ve read several reports recently that most people surfing the Internet do not utilize extensions on their browsers. This surprised me a bit, because I rely on so many extensions that the thought of not using them is shuddering. Maybe it is because I spend so much time on the Internet with my work, and maybe it is because I’m basically lazy, but not having extensions to lessen my workload, and improve my overall performance, to me, is like buying a car with no extras (like a stereo, or tires). 

For this set of articles however, I was asked to look at the “stock” performance of these three browsers, like I was a “normal” Internet surfer. 

Tabs

To start this set of comparison articles, I’m going to focus first on the Tabbing functions of the browsers. 

All three of the browsers (IE8, Firefox, Chrome) are tab browsers now. This is not a surprise, because tabs are simply a requirement these days. The actions of the tabs are a bit different with Chrome. In IE 8 and Firefox, when you hold the CRTL key down and click on a link, a new tab is opened at the end of your tab list. In Chrome, a new tab is opened just after the tab you opened the link from. 

This opening sequence is kind of nice once you realize what is happening, because it helps group topic sequences together by default. 

When opening new tabs, IE begins to slow down. IE is fairly fast with one or two tabs open, but when you reach 5 or 10 tabs, the whole computer begins to see a large drain on resources. 

With tabs open to some web sites, Firefox begins to slow down as well, and can even begin to error out, or do some rather confusing things until the browser is closed and restarted. It will even crash at times. 

I have not gotten Chrome to slow down or crash with opening tabs yet, and don’t think I haven’t tried. 

Basic Speed

Since we are not looking at the use of extensions or add-ons with these three browsers, speed definitely goes to Chrome, a hands down winner in both loading time, and the use of temporary caching on your computer so that coming back to a web page only loads what is new, and not every file a second time. 

The draw backs to Chrome are usability. The interface is sparse, incredibly sparse, and it is difficult at first glance to see what to do, or where to do it. 

IE is much sparser than it use to be, and more user friendly. I would guess that most users are familiar with the interface today anyway, but looking at it with “new eyes” I would guess that a new user could figure out how to get to a web site, or a search engine after a short study. 

Firefox is much better than both of these for user interface, maintaining a more familer menu layout, and ease of use format, which anyone familiar with any computer program will become comfortable with after only a few seconds. 

Page Loading

IE still has problems loading many web pages in the “intended” manner of the creator. This is due to a continued lack of keeping with Internet standards. This is a long story, and most professional web designers today simply make a version for IE and a version for the rest of the known world. However, you may come across a web site or two which doesn’t seem to look right in your IE browser. Unless you compare the web site using another browser, you will probably never realize the oddities. 

Both Firefox and Chrome use the Internet Standards, and I have not had any problems with Flash or other multimedia content with either of them. 

Crashing

Perhaps it is because I hammer on browsers all day long, visiting an average of 60+ new web sites a day, that I notice Firefox crashing more than I’m use to. It could also be running Firefox on Vista, but really that doesn’t make much difference at the time of the crash. 

IE crashes just as often as I’m use to. After about an hour of hard surfing, I normally restart the browser before it crashes, expecting it to freeze up on me soon. Not the best review for them, but I personally don’t like loosing work, so a quick restart is better than trying to find something I just lost. 

So far, I haven’t gotten Chrome to crash. Again, its not because I haven’t tried. However, because of the sparse interface and lack of any real tools, I am still not excited about Chrome at this time. 

Bookmarking

This is an area Chrome falls flat on its face, so does IE. Firefox allows you to “Save All Open Tabs” into a Bookmark folder with the click of a button. Chrome has a Star up by the address bar that allows quick bookmarking, if you know what that star is, but otherwise, bookmarking doesn’t even look like an option. 

IE is the same old slow, clumsy bookmarking it has always been, and again, with its tendency to slow down the computer when more than five or six tabs are open at one time, I guess it doesn’t matter much.