A browser speed test is a computer benchmark to measure the performance of the JavaScript engine

JavaScript engine

A JavaScript engine is specialized computer software which interprets and executes JavaScript . Although there are several uses for a JavaScript engine, it is most commonly used in web browsers.-History:...

 of a web browser

Web browser

A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...

. In general the software is available online, located on a website, where different algorithms are loaded and performed in the browser client. Typical test tasks are rendering and animation, DOM

Document Object Model

The Document Object Model is a cross-platform and language-independent convention for representing and interacting with objects in HTML, XHTML and XML documents. Aspects of the DOM may be addressed and manipulated within the syntax of the programming language in use...

 transformations, string operations, mathematical calculations, sorting algorithms , graphic performance tests (psychedelic browsing) and memory instructions.
Browser speed tests have been used during browser wars

Browser wars

Browser wars is a metaphorical term that refers to competitions for dominance in usage share in the web browser marketplace. The term is often used to denote two specific rivalries: the competition that saw Microsoft's Internet Explorer replace Netscape's Navigator as the dominant browser during...

 to prove superiority of specific web browsers. The popular Acid3

Acid3

Acid3 test is a web test page from the Web Standards Project that checks a web browser's compliance with elements of various web standards, particularly the Document Object Model and JavaScript....

 test is no particular speed test but checks browser conformity to web standards (though it checks whether a general performance goal is met or not).

Peacekeeper

Online speed test by Futuremark

Futuremark

Futuremark Oy is a Finnish software development company, that produces computer benchmark applications for home users and businesses. Company headquarters and R&D department are located in Espoo, Finland...

, mainly using rendering, mathematical and memory operations. Takes approx. 5 minutes for execution and tells results of other browsers with different CPUs. Does not respect operating system.

Speed-Battle

Test of JavaScript engine using simple algorithms. Displays results of other visitors (best, average, poorest) with same operating system and browser version. Additional statistics page with browser ranking.

SunSpider

Sunspider

Sunspider can stand for:* SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark, a system to benchmark the speed of JavaScript engines.* Solifugae an order of Arachnid , commonly called sun spiders....

The test suite is a component of the WebKit

WebKit

WebKit is a layout engine designed to allow web browsers to render web pages. WebKit powers Google Chrome and Apple Safari and by October 2011 held over 33% of the browser market share between them. It is also used as the basis for the experimental browser included with the Amazon Kindle ebook...

 rendering engine by Apple. As WebKit is used by Google Chrome and Safari, these browsers achieve good results with SunSpider. Internet Explorer

Internet Explorer

Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...

 used to be very slow on this test but from Internet Explorer 9 it has been the fastest. The test approx. 2 minutes for execution and does not test rendering performance.

V8

JavaScript test suite by Google

Google

Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...

, used to optimize Google Chrome

Google Chrome

Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...

web browser. Chrome 15 achieves about two and half times better results than Firefox 8 and Opera 11, and about three times better results than Safari 5 with this benchmark (tested on Windows 7). Does not test rendering performance.

Dromaeo

Mozilla test suite based on SunSpider tests. Takes several minutes for execution and displays very detailed information about every single test task.

Criticism

All browser tests deliver different results depending on the type and structure of testing and the focus of their measurement, though the tendency of results seems always to be the same. JavaScript and JavaScript engine speed in general are not the only criteria to evaluate the speed of a browser. Loading and rendering speed for a specific website via the Internet, memory consumption, hard disk storage consumption, start-up speed and so on should also be considered to rate the performance of a browser but are normally not included in online browser speed tests.

External links

• Peacekeeper
• Speed-Battle
• V8 benchmark
• SunSpider
• Dromaeo
• Kraken
• Are We Fast Yet? - A comparison of v8 and SunSpider benchmarks on various browsers.
• http://ie.microsoft.com/testdrive/performance/psychedelicbrowsing/Default.html