Apple, Google, Microsoft and others refresh Speedometer browser benchmark

Apple, Google, Microsoft and Mozilla collaborated to launch a new version of the Speedometer browser benchmark that aims to offer a “better way” to measure browser performance.

According to a press release from WebKit, an open-source browser engine developed by Apple, Speedometer 3.0 is the best way to measure browser benchmark performance. It does this by simulating workloads to measure the work the browser is doing in response to the user.

A notable change is a new governance model, which sees Speedometer development happen through a cross-industry collaboration supported by several major browser engines. This includes Blink/V8 (used in Chromium-based browsers, like Google Chrome and Microsoft Edge), Mozilla’s Gecko/SpiderMonkey and Apple’s WebKit/JavaScriptCore.

Version 3.0 brings several improvements to the benchmark, including better ways to capture and calculate scores, a wider variety of workloads to test and more detailed results. Much of what’s new is fairly jargon-heavy, so those interested can read all about it here.

The big difference is a shift in focus, with Speedometer 3.0 aiming to measure more of what the browser does in response to user actions. Prior methods measured run-time performance but missed important data related to render times and updates. WebKit. All this should hopefully make version 3.0 a better tool compared to previous versions.

Speedometer launched in 2014 with version 1.0, created by the WebKit team. In 2018, Apple and Google patterned to bring version 2.0.

Image Credit: BrowserBench

Source: WebKit, BrowserBench Via: MacRumors