fastest browser?

[Soap Mactavish]

i am on a quest for the fastest browser. Now as you all know firefox has been the fastest browser for a long time. But new browsers have come out i.e. Chrome, and new updates. I am here to re-evaluate these browsers. In my personal experience Google Chrome SCREAMS. however, the download speed is very sad. i also like the address bar/search bar integration.

Firefox hasnt had an update in a while as is slowly falling behind. In the browser speed business.

Conclusion: Chrome is the best for browsing the internet. I still stand by Safari on download speeds. 

Please comment on your opinion of the fastest browser.

[Xfire Keenmike aka cull]

I kind of don't mind which is faster. I will watch to see which one you find is faster russell.

[Soap Mactavish]

nah i ma just saying using Safari to dl a package and using chrome, it just seems to me that Safari reports faster rate of download than chrome.

[Radical_Pi]

In plain fastest browser, chrome wins. In fastest AND stable browser, I'd go with FF. I've had quite a few bad experiences with chrome crashing on my lower end laptop (while programming ugh). FF does nothing like that to me

Oh and I don't even use IE to download FF. wget FTW!

[aeria.]

Chrome is speedy; faster than FF in some cases. However, it will hog RAM if you have more than 7 tabs open. Firefox, on the other hand, will use 3X less RAM in the same situation, based on tests by maximumpc and lifehacker. Safari IMO has no advantage other than it's a webkit-based browser and can thus use the brand-spanking-new-and-fancy CSS3. However, Google Chrome has the same capabilities, and is faster. Safari consumes a load of RAM IMO, because of its use of a load of custom graphics for even the right-click menus.

I'm kinda skeptical of your claim that browsers have different download speeds. Theoretically, they all should be pretty much the same. If you want a genuine, non-biased test, you should access the config menu of the browser and edit the networking settings on each of them and make them all the same (max http connections, pipelining, max persistent connections per host, timeout, etc). This can be done in firefox by typing

Code Select Expand

about:config in the address bar and filtering to "network".

IE is just... Ugh.

This sums up the debate of Chrome vs FF. The ONLY reason why I still use Firefox is because of Adblock Plus. Safari and IE can't be compared to FF and Chrome, they're just bad...

[quik]

In plain fastest browser, chrome wins. In fastest AND stable browser, I'd go with FF. I've had quite a few bad experiences with chrome crashing on my lower end laptop (while programming ugh). FF does nothing like that to me

Oh and I don't even use IE to download FF. wget FTW!

Chrome is the fastest, yet I dislike it's downloading program. Internet Explorer IS faster than Firefox. But with all the problems it gets (such as not responding, etc) Firefox ends up being the better browser. Even if it is a tad slower.
Chrome>FF>IE>Safari

[[FIR] TREE]

Firefox hasnt had an update in a while as is slowly falling behind.

Wait, what?  Firefox updated Jan 21, 2010. (source: http://www.neowin.net/news/mozilla-firefox-36-final-release-date

This is why I use Firefox:

Web designers will receive a CSS gradient and background and an updated file API for web application developers, to work just like desktop apps.  Firefox will also add drag and drop support, and even detect your computer orientation.

I always had a sneaking suspicion my computer was gay.

[Soap Mactavish]

yea ik firefox was updated. i like chrome alot for the look and feel. maybe FF should start at least look into that field.

[Jedikiller]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10674

[aeria.]

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/10674

Firefox is now master browser.

[Soap Mactavish]

ill check it out. But for me Chrome is wicked fast since it came out. I really like where Google is taking it's company. especially with the soon to be release of Chrome OS.

[zorba1994]

Note: Camino is just like FF, except its tooled for Mac, so it opens up faster. I personally use it, as it is otherwise almost identical to FF (occasionally there are compatibility issues, but those are rare).