HTML5: Chrome climbs to the top

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HTML5: Chrome extends lead

6 January 2011 1,705 views 4 Comments

The holidays are done and it’s back to business, which here at the Fairer Platform includes our regular look at how well mainline browsers perform vis-a-vis the increasingly important HTML5. Tipped as a more powerful and secure replacement for Adobe Flash, it’s good to keep on eye on who’s doing the most to push the technology forward.

We last looked at mainline browser HTML5 performance back in September. Whereas Google keeps iterating Chrome like nobody’s business, Apple, Mozilla et al haven’t kept pace.

Thereupon, our measuring tool is Niels Leenheer’s The HTML5 Test, perhaps the best known of a growing array of independent, third-party HTML5 benchmarking tools.

Using a 377-point scale…

• Chrome 10 beta — 270 (239)
• Chrome 9 — 267 (233)
• WebKit r74228 — 260 (237)
• Firefox 4 beta 8 — 239 (235)
• Opera 11.0 — 223 (203)
• Safari 5.0.3 — 220 (220)
• Firefox 3.6.13 — 145 (145)
• SeaMonkey 2.0.11 — 130 (130)

When Safari 5 hit the streets on June 7, 2010, Apple was none too shy about touting its strong HTML5 chops were and the browser topped out survey for several months. Unfortunately, the mothership hasn’t done much since then to incorporate advances found in its open-source, developmental cousin WebKit, which continues to steadily get better.

Yes, Apple will get around to baking those advances into Safari, but the leaps and bounds development model leaves us feeling left behind 10 months of the year — not kosher.

Likewise Firefox and Opera haven’t delivered HTML5 goods either, though the Norwegians made a fair amount of noise about their efforts to date. In truth, there are ways to test and spin that makes each of the available HTML5-compatible browsers look better, but leadership isn’t measurable by spin.

Still, Firefox and Opera have both bested Safari.

Are you feeling the HTML5 browser love or do you wish Google, Apple et al would kick it into high gear?

See also:

— HTML5 games start to trickle out
— Help YouTube test HTML5
— How to: Trick websites to serve HTML5 video
— HTML5 Audio Safari extension: It’s cool
— CloudCanvas: An online HTML5 image editor [brilliant]

4 Comments »

Tweets that mention HTML5: Chrome climbs to the top | FairerPlatform -- Topsy.com said:

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Mac RSS. Mac RSS said: HTML5: Chrome extends lead http://bit.ly/fwwhcC [...]

# 6 January 2011 at 2:50 am

Walt French said:

When I fire up Chrome on my machine, it tells me that I have the up-to-date version, and yet it scores only 250 points on the test you cite. Yes, lower than the same 260 points I get in Safari.

So checking online, sure enough: version 8 is indeed cited as the latest “stable” version. Version 9, just updated 3 days ago, is “beta” where Google is seeking feedback and bug reports.

S you’re saying that a half-baked, not-fully-debugged beta version deserves more credibility than a widely tested and supported production version, just because it has a couple of features that no website can yet use because they’re not available in production browsers.

Why am I not impressed? What kind of disinformation is THAT?

# 7 January 2011 at 1:19 pm

Opera 11.01: Security, stability fixes; mouse gesture tweaks | FairerPlatform said:

[...] See also: HTML5: Chrome extends lead [...]

# 28 January 2011 at 11:55 am

HTML5: Chrome reigns; Safari and Firefox close the gap | FairerPlatform said:

[...] all of the major browsers measured have improved their scores since I last tested on January 6 (HTML5: Chrome climbs to the top), their pace hasn’t increased with the number of items examined. • Chrome 11 beta — 278 [...]

# 18 March 2011 at 10:26 am