Browser speed comparisons
The Internet is full of various claims about the relative speeds of browsers. Rarely is there any concrete documentation to back up the claims. At last, there is a site that gives detailed information about some realistic tests of the capabilities of a large number of browsers. There is not a single property that can be called browser speed but a number of different ones and the author has tested the speed of seven different functions. He has tested 13 Linux browsers, 18 Mac browsers, and 24 Windows browsers. All in all it is an impressive study.
Want the conclusion? The author says
No, no. That is up to you. It all depends on how you use your browser and what you use it for, and what operating system(s) you use it on. Take a look at the tables (and graphs, if your browser’s scripting engine is up to the task) and work it out for yourself.
For Windows I would say that while it depends on your criteria, Opera seems a clear winner in several categories. Firefox and Internet Explorer are not all that significantly different but Firefox does not test as fast in some categories as I would have thought.
Thanks to Jack Teems of Neat Net Tricks for pointing out this site.