IE7 is a slow coach compared to Firefox 2.0

Stan Beer
Monday, 30 October 2006 16:49

Opinion and Analysis

I wrote that Microsoft kicked a goal with IE7 a couple of days ago and it certainly is a vast improvement on IE6. However, after playing with IE7 and doing some informal tests against Firefox 2.0, I have to say that the performance of Microsoft’s new browser leaves a lot to be desired.

To be fair, I haven’t run any fancy benchmarking programs against either browser. However, I have had both browser windows open at the same time and accessed the same pages, doing a number of different tests.

The results from using a stop watch dozens of times clicking on the same link in each browser were telling. Not once in dozens of tests was the IE7 browser as fast, or faster at opening a window and rendering a page than Firefox 2.0. On the other hand, Firefox 2.0 was, according to my reckoning considerably faster in nearly every single test.

How much was the difference? The short answer is considerable. I have a very fast cable broadband connection so all pages load relatively fast. However, when I accessed the content management system of this website the difference between Firefox 2.0 and IE7 in posting stories was so noticeable that it led me to do further tests.

Putting a stop watch to page loads after clicking the same links on a number of different sites revealed that Firefox 2.0 was consistently about 20% faster in loading pages. The only exceptions I could find were Microsoft sites such as, www.microsoft.com and www.msn.com where both browsers came out fairly equal.

This may be just my experience on my machine with my particular internet connection and I would welcome comments from users who have had different experiences. However, as far as I’m concerned IE7 is a slow coach.