Web Browser Comparison By: Gustavo Marrero & Ignacio Pérez

1. Web Browser Comparison By: Gustavo Marrero & Ignacio Pérez Universidad Interamericana de Puerto Rico ABSTRACT RESULTS • In the acid3 test, Chrome, Safari and Opera got a 100/100 result. • In the Peacekeeper test the 3 browser that had better results were Chrome, Opera and Firefox4 Beta. • In the JSbenchmark test the 3 with better results were Chrome, Opera and Safari • The purpose of this experiment was to find the best overall browser by submitting five of the most used browsers to existing tests and benchmarks to determine which of them is the most efficient. The tests and benchmarks used were Acid3 test, Peacekeeper “The Browser Benchmark” test, and Memory consumption test. The Acid3 test checks how well a web browser follows certain selected elements from web standards, especially relating to the Document Object Model (DOM) and JavaScript. The Peacekeeper test compares different browsers to find out which one offers the best performance on the PC. The memory consumption test shows how much of the computer’s RAM is being used on the browser. PURPOSE AND HYPOTHESIS This research was conducted with the purpose to determine which of the most commonly used web browsers is the most efficient and safe to use. The most common browsers used to date are: Apple’s Safari browser, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer browser, Google’s Chrome browser, Mozilla’s Firefox browser, and Opera Software’s Opera browser. In our opinion and experience with a normal day to day usage of these web browsers we decided that Google’s Chrome browser to be the best overall. We reached this conclusion observing the speed when accessing web pages on a day to day basis and the simple to use Interface. MATERIALS AND METHODS For this research we used the same PC for each of the tests. We used a Windows 7 64 bit PC with 4 GB of RAM, an AMD Vision dual core 2.20 GHz processor , a 256 MB ATI dedicated graphics card, and 320 GB of HDD. Tests and Benchmarks: To test the web browser using the Acid 3 test we accessed http://acid3.acidtests.org/ on the computer with each of the web browsers, this web based test automatically verifies how the browser follows certain elements from the web standards and gives the score on a scale of 1- 100. The “Peacekeeper” benchmark is a general test of the browser’s overall performance on the PC. It determines which browser functions best on your PC. The JSBenchmark test measures how many repetitions of a processwithin the browser can occur over an elapsed period of time. These are called iterations per second. These iterations per second determine the agility of the browser. We tested each browsers memory consumption using Windows Task Manager in order to see the amount of memory being used by the browser with 1 open tab and then 5 open tabs. We made sure to reboot the computer after each test to clear the RAM and have the least margin of error possible. CONCLUSIONS After all the test we ran, Google’s Chrome Browser was always in the top three. Scoring 100/100 in the Acid3 test, 4463 in the Peacekeeper Benchmark test and 338 in the JS Benchmark Test. Also Chrome was the browser to use the least amount of RAM with both 1 tab and 5 tabs opened making it a light software while still retaining speed and superiority over the rest of the web browsers available today. After all The tests and benchmarks we ran, the data pointed out that the overall best web browser for every day use is Google’s Chrome Browser. BIBLIOGRAPHY During this experiment we used several web sites to gather information and test the web browsers, the web sites we used were: • http://jsbenchmark.celtickane.com/ • http://service.futuremark.com/peacekeeper/index.action • http://acid3.acidtests.org/ • http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/firefox-chrome-opera,2558.html • http://browsers.about.com/od/howbrowserswork/a/whatisabrowser.htm ACKNOWLEDGEMENT We would like to give special thanks to the creators of the websites we used because without them this experiment would not be possible. • AGMUS, Student Research Development Center – SRDC - Dr. Juan F. Arratia, Executive Director SRDC - Prof. Evelyn Haddock, SRDC Co-IP, Inter American University, Metropolitan Campus - Research Mentor: Dr. ÁngelCaraballo • Research Mentor Assistant: Prof. Irma Álvarez