Webupon

Why the Test?

I get impatient at times when I try to view my contents and statistics at Triond. Although the overall status of my account is displayed using my Mozilla Firefox browser, I wanted to see the viewing trend as well as which articles were most read. I searched for other browsers in the net to see which ones will serve my needs especially those that will display detailed statistics specifically at Triond.

The Testing Method

I hypothesized that there are many innovative, efficient browsers which are not well advertised (as Internet Explorer, Firefox, Opera and Safari) but will work quite well. So I compared the speed of browsers I could find in the internet using keywords like “fastest” or “smallest” browsers and noted their distinct features. I categorized them into two: 1) browsers with large installation files, and 2) browsers that are easily installed since they are made of small files. My primary concern was to see which browser displays my Triond trend line and referring sites. I recorded the time from log-in to the time that the line graph and the bar chart appeared. I made sure that I cleared all browsing history before testing the browser. All installation used standard browser settings. Here are the results:

Speed Comparison

Category 1 – Large File Browsers

Large size browsers maximize viewing experience and has many setting options. These browsers also appear to have better security features than the simple ones. Here are the results of the test:

I never thought Sea Monkey would be the fastest browser, way ahead of its class. I noticed that there were security fixes in Sea Monkey Version 1.1.16 so I tried the latest Version 1.1.17 at a different time. This version is even faster than its predecessor. Safari lags too far behind while Mozilla Firefox lies midway in speed. Lunascape, although slower compared to the others, prides itself as the world’s first hybrid engine browser. It allows you to choose from among three engines namely Webkit, Gecko and Trident or a combination of the Features of Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari.

Category 2 – Small File Browsers

My fancy with small browsers started with Off-by-One because it is quite fast in displaying webpages and handy in reading textual material. I did not realize that there are likewise small file browsers that work surprisingly fast and display websites better. Besides, the latest Off-By-One browser update was way back in 2006. The advantage of these browsers is primarily their easy installation because of their small installation files so you save on hard disk space while getting a respectable display of websites. These are handy when you want to have a quick look of websites or just for the sake of having variety in surfing. I would say this would be ideal for notebooks or laptops. Here are the results of my test:

Mini-Browser displayed faster than the other two. Browsing using it, however, is unsecure and there are only a few options for browser settings. The World browser, a new player, appears to be promising with its uncluttered interface while Avant has undergone some version revisions.

File Size Comparison

Among the large file browsers, Safari is bulkiest at more than 27 MB while Opera is lightest at a little more than 5 MB. For the tiny browsers, Avant has the smallest installation files. Details are found below.

Conclusion

Since speed between some browsers varies slightly, it is possible that other factors may be at play in website display. I compared speeds at different time segments (8:45 to 10:00 am and Sea Monkey later in the early afternoon). Website traffic at Triond would have somehow influenced speed at log-in. Nevertheless, I opted to keep two browsers each from the large file and small file browsers; Mozilla Firefox because of its useful add-ons like Zotero and Triond toolbar and Sea Monkey for speed and for resolving some issues like image uploading at Triond. (When I used the newer version of Sea Monkey, however, I got the same problem as I had in Mozilla Firefox. I used The World instead). I selected Avant for its unique interface and The World for its many browsing options as well as novelty. Mini-Browser, although fast, notes unsecure browsing.

I will still have to find out which one works best in the online editor although Sea Monkey is my current preference though I have a problem with the recent release. A word of caution though: Use the browser with the best security features when you enter sensitive files, such as when you fill up personal information in web forms.

Note:

I used Windows XP run in a 2.00 GHz CPU and with 512 RAM. Web page display should be faster in computers with faster processor and larger RAM.