In a quest for the fastest browser, Tom’s Hardware (an online publication that focuses on technology) conducts the Web Browser Grand Prix regularly. Between the previous Grand Prix held in August (which was held on a “Hackintosh”-- a PC running a Mac OS) and the most recent, a slew of developments (such as the introduction of Chrome 15, the birth of Firefox 8, and Chrome and Firefox updating to their next versions) were made in the web world, significantly affecting the results-- which were made available on Friday, January 6, 2012.

The competitors (the most popular web browsers- Internet Explorer 9, Google’s Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Opera and Safari) were tested to their limits on a MacBook Air with a 1.8GHz Intel Core i7 processor running OS X Lion that also ran the Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit OS via Apple’s boot camp. The report documented 4 types of tests (i.e. Core, Quarantine, Observation, and Dated) that helped weigh the browsers according to the Performance, Efficiency, Reliability, and Conformance benchmarks that Tom’s Hardware uses as yardsticks every Grand Prix. The browsers were grilled on both platforms in grueling tests that involved startup time, hardware acceleration stress, memory usage and management, correctness of page load, and browsers’ specs (and conformity) in running applications that required Java, HTML 5, etc.

One factor the race did not measure, according to Matt Peckham from Time Techland, is browser stability. While the Grand Prix saw Firefox 9 emerge champion of the Windows 7 OS as a result of the most number of high scores and only one weak performance, Safari ruled its native Mac OS X. Tom’s Hardware ranked Chrome second on the Windows 7 OS, explaining that it was only a “minor performance update away from matching or perhaps even surpassing Firefox 9”. Opera came second, and IE 9 finished last, in a tie with Safari. The race on the Mac OS saw Chrome and Firefox fighting for second place, and after much debate, TH named Chrome as Safari’s runner up, after which came in Firefox. Opera came in second-last, followed by IE 9, whose stagnation was apparent in both circuits.