Good for Mobile Web Developers

Of course, these are benchmarks and don't necessarily correlate directly into a superior user experience, but it is good to see that even iPhone 3G users will see significant speed gains from the 3.0 release. This should give mobile developers quite a boost, as they can now develop and run more complex, cross-platform compatible web apps that won't be hindered by the mobile browser's performance, though the Android-powered G1 is still pretty slow according to Medialets and the Palm Pre sees the same performance as a 3G with the 3.0 OS.

For now, however, there are also still a few million iPhone 3G users who haven't updated their phones' operating system yet...

Since the first beta release, Google has focused on fixing stability issues (especially with regards to playing Flash video), sped up the already fast V8 JavaScript engine, and added a better bookmark manager and privacy controls.

According to Google, the next step in the development of Chrome will be the addition of an extension architecture similar to Firefox's. Google is also planning to release Mac and Linux versions soon.

Lots of Users Already

Here at RWW, about 5.2% of our readers used Chrome in November (which is down from the 6.3% we saw when it launched in September and a lot of folks decided to give it a try) and a lot of our writers also use it on a daily basis. In comparison, about 2% of our readers use Opera and 9% use Safari.

A New Focus on Speed

If anything, the release of Chrome engine has made all the other browser developers focus on the speed of their JavaScript engines again, which can only be a good thing for those of us who spend a lot of our days in browsers. The only missing piece that is still holding Chrome back today is the absence of a good extension architecture.

At another meeting in Sydney, Ballmer also announced that Microsoft was definitely not interested in reconsidering an acquisition of Yahoo.

According to the Associated Press, Ballmer clearly stated his disinterest in going back to the negotiating table with Yahoo anytime soon. Just two days ago, Yahoo's CEO Jerry Yang said that he would consider another offer from Microsoft. Ballmer, however, also acknowledged that "some kind of partnership around search" might still be an option.

Microsoft and WebKit

Looking at the video of Ballmer talking about Webkit (he talks about it at about the 38:50 mark), it quickly becomes clear that Microsoft has no interest in supporting WebKit. Ballmer talks about the importance of web standards and how Apple used WebKit for building its own browser. Ballmer also states that he feels confident about Microsoft's ability to develop interesting browser technologies itself.

While it would surely be interesting if Microsoft did indeed use WebKit for its browser, and while it would also make sense on many levels, it seems that we are still a long way off from seeing an open-source based Internet Explorer.

Benchmarks

We used the SunSpider benchmark to test the latest version of WebKit against Google's Chrome. The results are quite impressive. WebKit with SquirrelFish Extreme finished the benchmark in 1235ms while Chrome needed 1598ms. The latest production version of FireFox took 3424ms to complete the benchmark. We were not able to test FireFox with TraceMonkey enabled (running the benchmark crashed the browser), but judging from these results, it is clearly a lot slower than both ScquirrelFish Extreme and Chrome.

We also ran the Mozilla affiliated Dromaeo benchmark, which takes a more holistic approach and does not just look at the JavaScript engine. Here, too, SquirrelFish Extreme outperformed Chrome's V8 (4522ms vs. 5206ms).

In case you want to try these benchmarks for yourself, you can download the latest version of WebKit with SquirrelFish Extreme from here.

Competition at Work

When Google launched Chrome, it emphasized that it wanted to bring more competition into this market and to push the development of faster and better browsers. The fact that both the Mozilla and WebKit teams are working so hard to beat Google definitely proves that there is still a lot of room for improvement and that Google's plan is working.