Google Chrome: not faster, safer or smaller after all

By Davey Winder
Thursday, 04 September 2008 16:32

Networking

The testing opens up the links from those initial 10 pages on more tabs to put the browser under the microscope as far as memory consumption is concerned. What it revealed was the peak working set of 324MB, just behind IE8 on 332MB, put "a massive hit on available memory for our 2GB Windows XP (SP3) test system."

The real shocker was when the researchers switched focus to an average working set, and realised that IE8 had a 211MB memory footprint while Chrome managed 267MB. Put another way, that makes the average Chrome memory footprint 26 percent larger than IE8.

Firefox 3.01, meanwhile, peaked at 151MB and averaged out at just 104MB by comparison. Even IE7 looked relatively slim at a peak of 209MB and an average 142MB.

The reason that Chrome is fatter, in memory terms, than the rest comes down to design. The multi-process tabbing model might help isolate failure and protect complex web applications, but it will also suck up memory like a sponge.

OK, so memory bloat aside, how does Chrome fare on the next item on that feature hitlist: safer?

Well, we have already mentioned that the multi-process tabbing model should make it more stable as well as offer some protection to web-based applications.

But you also have to take into account that Chrome is using the same open-source browser technology as can be found in Apple's Safari browser.

Actually, scrap that. Google is using an older version of WebKit (525.13) than Apple's Safari browser, the same one as was used in Safari v3.1.

This leaves it open to any vulnerabilities that exist in that version of WebKit. Like the one described by security researcher Aviv Raff who reveals this leaves Windows using Chrome vulnerable to blended threat carpet bombing.

Does this put Chrome users at risk, and are there any other security issues we should know about? Find out, along with just how fast the Google browser is, on page 3...

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