What do people define "speed" as in terms of web browsers

[DerChef]

I have seen more threads from people who say I always use web browser A as I found it so much faster than web browser B.

Stay clear of web browser C as its so sllllllllooooooooow.

Do people mean how it renders the simple graphics on the page or how it handles plugins things such as flash ?

Or do they mean their use of CPU time and resources

Some renders the graphics on the page progressively and others in a oner. Basically one that seems to work better with a fast broadband connection will not "appear" so good with dial up.

I have been carrying out tests using a very complex site to load namely the ITV F1 website with lots of ads.

Basically all the modern browsers all rendered the page within a few seconds of each other.

My point is people saying a browser is slow or fast is talking out their rear

 

[yellow]

Funny answer: How quickly I can download pr0n.

Real answer: It's totally subjective and subject to wide interpretation. Most people base it on how fast they can get to their favorite web pages.

And in this day and age, people get very touchy about browser X taking 1/2 a second longer than browser Y to load myspace ( ). So clearly browser X sux.

 

[72930]

If I am browsing a lot of web pages at once (e.g tabs), then I need a browser that can render those pages fast, instead of waiting, like dial-up.

 

[slackersonly]

to me there are two speeds that I care about

1) how fast are pages rendered
2) how fast is the browser after 5-6 days of heavy usage

 

[DerChef]

And in this day and age, people get very touchy about browser X taking 1/2 a second longer than browser Y to load myspace ( ). So clearly browser X sux.

"I need my space" What young guys say to their other half when the relationship is getting stale and they have just had DSL installed

 

[MisterMe]

Funny answer: How quickly I can download pr0n.

Real answer: It's totally subjective and subject to wide interpretation. Most people base it on how fast they can get to their favorite web pages.

And in this day and age, people get very touchy about browser X taking 1/2 a second longer than browser Y to load myspace ( ). So clearly browser X sux.

Preach! I have 12 browsers on my machine. I find no reproduceable speed difference among the lot. Yet I read about how much faster Shiira (a WebKit-based alternative to Safari) is than WebKit-based Safari. Gecko-based Firefox just blows Gecko-based Camino out of the water. What is really going on is that we have a lot of people with active imaginations and they allow their imaginations run away with them.

 

[nick004]

Apparently Gecko renders the data in way that lets little bits display before others eg. IE. So it seems that it is working faster

 

[ddekker]

speed

I have done a few seat of the pants experiments with browser speeds... first off I sit with two PC's and one apple on my desk all day everyday... I have the latest PPC powerbook that was made (pre intel) and side by side with the slower of my pc's (about the same era as the laptop) browsing on the laptop is painful, I had always said this to my mac guru buddy and he thought I was crazy, but on the same connection going to the same sites It feel about 3 times as long as the other.... so he recently bought a mac mini (intel) and next to his PPC note book he would browse to a site and the mini was a good 5 times faster loading the same page at the same time... he now replaced his laptop with a new intel based laptop and is just stunned with the speed difference... He now believes me that browsing with my laptop is painful, he didn't believe me because he only had ever used apples (his company is 100% apple) so now he claims he has to replace hiw iMac at home because he can't stand the speed... I have tried a few different browsers on my mac and they are all close enough in speed, they can't make up the 3-5 times speed difference I'm looking to gain. that 3-5 number comes from a 3 or so year old PC and the last of the PPC macs... both running a gig of ram, not apples to apples I know (pun intended)

thats my 2 cents

DD

 

[netdog]

I define speed as "WebKit Nightly Build"

 

[PlaceofDis]

speed not only means individual page renders as they all are about the same there, but how well each browser renders multiple tabs, loads, and other such features.

example. switching tabs in Safari sometimes creates a lag in rendering, this doesn't happen with Camino at all.

 

[zero2dash]

I define speed as how fast a webpage appears after its downloaded. With some browsers there seems to be a small delay, but with others, it is displayed immediately. That's what I notice at least.

 

[gekko513]

I define speed as how fast a webpage appears after its downloaded. With some browsers there seems to be a small delay, but with others, it is displayed immediately. That's what I notice at least.

That's probably what this thread is all about. The time from you click the link until the webpage appears completely is usually still the same.

 

[gloss]

I define speed as how fast a webpage appears after its downloaded. With some browsers there seems to be a small delay, but with others, it is displayed immediately. That's what I notice at least.

Yes.