Hardware 2.0

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes

The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

By Adrian Kingsley-Hughes | November 7, 2011, 4:08am PST

Summary: Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5 … which browser will be triumphant?

Now that we can get out hands on the new Firefox 8, it’s time to redo the The BIG browser benchmark!

BIG browser benchmark is simple - we take the leading browsers and pit them against four of the toughest benchmark tests available to see which is the tortoise, and which is the hare.

[UPDATE: Updated to add Firefox 8.0.1 and Opera 11.60, which throw up identical results to previous versions.]

Five browsers are in the running:

Internet Explorer 9 (9.0.8112.16421) 32-bit
Firefox 8 (also applies to Firefox 8.0.1)
Chrome 15.0.874.106
Safari 5.1.1
Opera 11.52 (also applies to Opera 11.60)

Note: The performance of the 64-bit version of IE 9 is so abysmal that I didn’t bother with it this time. If you want an idea of how bad it is, check out the tests I ran back in March of this year.

And here are the tests that the browsers will face:

SunSpider JavaScript 0.9.1 - A JavaScript benchmark developed by Mozilla with a focus on real-world problem solving.
V8 Benchmark Suite - A pure JavaScript benchmark used by Google to to tune the V8 JavaScript engine.
Peacekeeper - FutureMark’s JavaScript test which stress-tests features such as animation, navigation, forms and other commonly utilized tasks.
Kraken 1.1 - Another JavaScript benchmark developed by Mozilla. This is based on the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test but features some additional enhancements.

All testing carried out on a Windows 7 64-bit machine running a Q9300 2.5GHz quad-core processor with 4GB of RAM and an NVIDIA GTX 260 graphics card.

SunSpider JavaScript Benchmark –>

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Adrian Kingsley-Hughes is an internationally published technology author who has devoted over a decade to helping users get the most from technology.

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And now the others tests

programaths 4th Dec

Ok, IE is clearly a looser in JavaScript/EcmaScript and do not implements version 1.8.3, all others does...Only that permit a significant gain of speed and memory footprint for coders (Eg. using generators instead of raw arrays)

So, at this, IE fails too.

Now, the CSS question : IE fails, behind all concurrents.
The HTML5 test : Same.

Should I speak about true rich documents ? Where you include SVG as part of the design ? MathML and other juicy stuffs ? And I'm not even speaking about setting an SVG filter on a part of document. (Doable and done in firefox:http://people.mozilla.org/~roc/filter.xhtml)

But, yes, sticking to IE doesn't hurt. After all, developers will scratch their head to give you the same experience.

NOTE :
Firefox development : Know the specs, develop your site, check, done.
Internet explorer : Get an overview of the specs, develop your site, test, develop your site, test, ..., open others browsers, test, ...,

And when you "got it" :
Develop in FireFox/Chrome, check, fix for IE, done.
OR
Stick to things common to all : No paddings, no margins, no advanced selectors, basic JavaScript,...

References: Year of development on these browsers, up to date in various "technologies" and gifted (which explain why learned anything I could/wanted).

And something maybe more speaking for people : http://www.scirra.com/
They make an HTML5 GameMaker and you guessed, they find it easier to work in Chrome. (I let you guess why)

Now, some critics on the review itself :

Partial : A browser is not only JavaScript and 2.0 websites do not only rely on it.
Biased : Due to previous weakness, conclusion is weak too. Argument is right, we don't care for nanoseconds, but against, these are others parameters not taken into account. So, you can't state it unless if you add : "Regarding JavaScript only ...".
(And even, people would misread it, so the statement should be clearer : "If JavaScript was the most important part of a browser engine then ...".
Advice : Users have a brain, sometimes they forget about it but don't help them to.
(Oh, yea, I mean have brains, but common, most often the first is true http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sheep%20Effect&defid=5894907)
Milgram "effect"* : You are the authoritative, most user wont be critics. You've to turn on they "be critic" flag by a limpid statement : "Browsers are complex mechanics, in these benchmark, we will only consider the JavaScript part. Success of a browser in JavaScript only doesn't means success in general..."

Links to others test would be nice too :

Acid test : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acid3
HTML 5 test : http://html5test.com/results.html

My advice : Download others browsers and see by yourself what could be the web of tomorrow ! It takes some time to do, it's tedious but worth to do !
(Eg, in chrome, you may look in chrome store, In firefox, addons, in Opera, widgets, ...)
____________________________
*if you google it, replace by "experiment"

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

CobraA1 Updated - 7th Nov

Just JavaScript, eh?

"I really dont think that JavaScript performance is an issue any more."

I agree. And to be honest, it hasn't been an issue for a while. I don't remember the last time JavaScript was really slowing down anything.

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it depends...

Mikael_z 7th Nov

@CobraA1
On what you do with it.
If you use a lot of add ons then javascript i certainly important. I think the results are suspicious. Either Adrian has a very slow PC or both Safari and Chrome are slow on Windows. For example with Sunspider Safari (Mac) finished in about half the time it took for Chrome in his test, i.e. 170 seconds on a Macbook pro with an Intel core i7.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

CobraA1 8th Nov

@Mikael_z

"For example with Sunspider Safari (Mac) . . ."

He probably tested it on PC. And I can tell you with certainty that Safari on the PC is not the same as Safari on the Mac.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

Rob.sharp@... 7th Nov

@CobraA1

Agreed...we live in an age of Broadband speeds and milli-seconds. I really don't see how or why there's a fuss over browsers anymore...it's like beating a dead horse. For a number of years the browser became a non-factor why is it a factor now? I find it humorous! I'll stick to my IE9.

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I save 372 milli-seconds a day

William Farrell 9th Nov

@rob.sharp@...
by using Chrome! That's over a minute and a half every year! Time is money! wink

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

_vJo 7th Nov

and what about security? The latest report from NSS Labs only looks at Chrome 12 and Firefox 4, showing IE9 as far ahead in security blocking 99,2% of socially-engineered malware (when Chrome 12 blocked 13.2% and Firefox 4, 7,6%)
http://www.nsslabs.com/research/endpoint-security/browser-security/socially-engineered-malware-global-q3-2011.html
Any update on that?

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

JustCallMeBC 7th Nov

@_vJo Those are rubbish test results that have been overly promoted by Microsoft (apparently NSS Labs is not exactly totally neutral when it comes to Microsoft) and "Socially engineered malware" is also among the least things to be concerned about, securitywise, when web surfing. Just last last month there was a pile of warnings of yet new highly critical vulnerabilities in IE9. And it isn't just a case of all browsers having periodic discovered vulnerabilities -- the design of IE, in having it artificially bundled in with the OS, makes IE vulnerabilities inherently far more problematic than vulnerabilities in other browsers, and that supposed extra security like ASLR and DEP/NX have proven worthless against more advanced exploits.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

neonspark 7th Nov

@JustCallMeBC

when you don't agree with the results, smudge them. classic tactic. bottom line is that I care more about that than I do about a few milliseconds in some random JS test I'll never run in real life.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

JustCallMeBC 7th Nov

@neonspark Umm...did you not see the post I was replying to?

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

Rob.sharp@... 7th Nov

@JustCallMeBC

Over promoted...much like the javascript tests that endorse chrome as a superior browser. I'm sorry but i'll take security over Speed any day of the week!

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

_vJo Updated - 8th Nov

@JustCallMeBC It's true that Microsoft used to pay NSS Labs for the survey, but that was years ago! NSS Labs realized the huge interest in these results and kept on running the analysis from their own will. And if you don't trust NSS Labs, why do you give more credibility to those tests? One was developed by Google and two others by Mozilla... wouldn't that be even more suspicious?

As for the integration of IE9 in Windows 7 specifically, it allows a higher degree of security, on the contrary, Windows 7 being the most secured OS available, and IE its browser counterpart. It also allows Microsoft to reply very quickly through Windows Update if there are security issues coming up.
Don't forget as well that IE and Windows are the most targeted by hackers in their categories... just as it was explained after Pwn2Own for example, the reason why Chrome didn't fall is because almost noone was trying to make it fall, when everyone was busy with Safari and IE... hence why security talks mostly come around IE, but what less people know is that when such a security issue appears, it usually takes a few hours to Microsoft to push an automatic update to solve it... quite convenient, isn't it? even though it's not always that easy, right? Those hackers!

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

SinfoCOMAR 7th Nov

Didn't the turtle win the race against the hare? happy

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

goombawa 7th Nov

@SinfoCOMAR Awesome.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

Aerowind 7th Nov

I'll stick to Firefox. Browsers are at the point where speed doesn't really matter anymore, and as such, the add-ons for Firefox makes it a win in my book. Really, that's the only thing keeping me from Chrome. NoScript is my drug.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

dtdono0 Updated - 7th Nov

@Aerowind

There's a similar plug-in for Chrome aptly called 'NotScripts'. Does the same exact thing.

----------------------------------------------

I'm not too concerned about these 'synthetic' benchmarks to tell me what browser performs the best. IE 9 is lacking in HTML 5 support, web workers, and CSS 3 features...that is the main thing that prevents me from using it over Chrome.

I will be interested in IE 10 when it becomes more widely available. The latest build (developer preview 3) only comes with the Windows 8 build, but adds all that 'missing' support that should have been included with IE 9 imo. If MS sticks to history, IE 10 will be RTM'd to Win7 by March 2012 and beta will be released before that.

Chrome is just so fast in general compared to Firefox which gets bogged down after you install several extensions. Using NotScripts + YAGBE for storing my Google bookmarks in their cloud app is so great since I regularly switch between 4-5 different computers.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

UStupidKid 7th Nov

@dtdono0
Chrome is faster indeed, but not better. Firefox has about:config feature, which Chrome don't have. Chrome speed up by storing a lot of cache offline. Cache can build up to 1 GB and chrome does not provide a easy way to clear cache automatically. In firefox, you can tell it to clear cache when closing.
Chrome maybe for you, but not for me. I have a great ethernet. No cache, thanks chrome

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

rengek 7th Nov

@UStupidKid
you mean like about:flags in chrome?

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

goombawa 7th Nov

@dtdono0 IE9 may be some things, but not HTML5 compliant is not one of them. Latest tests show full compliance, or at least the same as Chrome.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

neonspark 7th Nov

@dtdono0
I find it funny people worry about support for features the W3C hasn't finalized. Anybody that cares about standards shouldn't use beta features which aren't supported by the rest since it encourages interfaces from being changed and improved further because of dumb ass webmasters not being patient for a proper spec to be finalized. And then we end up with crap like ccs.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

ScorpioBlue Updated - 7th Nov

@dtdono0

Without Firefox's AdBlock or Redirector extensions, everything else is a no go.

So Firefox takes a couple more milliseconds to load. So what. Big deal.

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This bench means nothing...

EricDeBerg 7th Nov

This bench means nothing... IE9 is the best browser...

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

tom@... 8th Nov

@EricDeBerg ,,, Best for what? Droppinig boat anchors?

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Why include Google and Firefox benchmarks

LiquidLearner 7th Nov

But not include any of Microsoft's benchmarks. I don't understand why this continues to be acceptable. Also why not include time to launch as a benchmark? I'll continue to use a combination of IE and Chrome regardless but it seems odd to me.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

dimonic 7th Nov

@LiquidLearner Could it be because google and mozilla publish source to their benchamarks, and MS does not - but only allows testing using its benchmark in a special appointed lab?

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

eMJayy 7th Nov

Maybe next time you should run benchmark tests on more than one OS platform. I'm finding that those rankings don't necessarily hold true across different OSes. For instant, this machine I'm using runs Ubuntu 11.10 and is my second slowest desktop machine. It has a dual core AMD processor running at stock speed, 2 GB DDR2 Ram and uses Nvidia integrated graphics.

But get this - When it comes to the SunSpider benchmark, Firefox 7 running on this machine not only smokes Chrome 15 running on Ubuntu, but also smokes all your test browsers, including IE9 running on your quad core Windows 7 test machine.

Firefox on this machine executed the SunSpider 0.9.1 benchmark in 256.3ms. And that's while running the 32bit Ubuntu. Makes me question the validity of your results for browsers running on Macs and on machines that use Windows XP and Vista.

In any case, javascript benchmarks have been irrelevant as a tool for measuring browser speed differences for some time now...time as in years. There's no such thing as a slow new browser anymore. The slowest browser loads pages in the blink of an eye, the fastest loads pages in the blink of an eye - so who the hell cares? These days, if I want faster browsing, I switch to a faster DNS service. The only browser metrics I consider now are general reliability and browser flexibility. And that's where Firefox continues to shine the most.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

tom@... 8th Nov

@eMJayy ,,, These kinds of benchmarks are like statistics; you can make them say whatever you want to by using failure to mention and various controls whic give varying results, just as you indicated.

+1!

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Browser Comparisons need to be about REAL safety

Drakaran 7th Nov

What I care more about is which is REALLY the safest, not THEORETICALLY the safest, but actually the safest.

My chrome browser was infected by a keylogger that required NO USER INPUT, and since it doesn't have a viable NoScript solution, I've decided to let it rest for a time before using it again.

It's a shame, because I used to feel Chrome was a safer to browse with "script enabled", but since it's gained usage share, evidently the bad guys are also giving it more attention.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

tom@... 8th Nov

@Drakaran ,,, You do realize just how low "usage share" is, right? Nothinig meaningful can be gleaned from such pathetically tiny numbers.

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The average person does not care

tgschmidt 7th Nov

About all this crap anyway. They want to click on the Icon and get tot he web pages they use. As long as that happens most really do not care. I use chrome because I like the look & the user experience. c hanged to it becuse I was tired of web page "lock ups" and having to close & restart IE. My IT friend said give Chrome a try so I did and have been using it ever since. It just works. I ams sure Firefox does too, but I am not going to change something that works fine for me. All 3 of my teens changed to Chrome from IE once they used my Netbook with Chrome on it. The reason? They like they way it "looks" what ever that means.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

mikroland2.0 7th Nov

@tgschmidt
I bet if you'd removed all the junk plugins from IE you'd not have all of those lockups and restarts.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

_vJo 8th Nov

@tgschmidt and if you want to only click and get to your webpage, then IE9 on Windows 7 is definitely the best solution: you can pin your favourite websites to your taskbar and for websites like Facebook, WSJ, ebay, hulu, etc. you even have a jumplist...
have a look: http://buildmypinnedsite.com/

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

abhi.jamwal 7th Nov

oh! dude you forgot to mention the basic requirements for chrome:

8GB RAM(4GB dedicated to Chrome alone)

28-cell li-ON battery for 2-3 hrs of moderate usage or constant supply of power to you laptop

I HOPE GOOGLE HASN'T RAISED THE BAR AGAIN WITH CHROME 15

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I'm learning it depends on what you are doing

vaughnmv 7th Nov

Since Firefox 7 came out and has been nothing but buggy for me and a lot of the users I support, I have been searching for a new browser. Each day of the week I use a different browser and each day of the week I keep track of any issues that arise.

I'm running Windows 7 64bit. Over a month only one browser never crashed, IE9. Opera and Safari had countless website issues, while IE9 has only had one so far. Chrome has had no website issues and has only crashed once. Firefox 7 had no web site issues, but crashes so often it is unusable.

I have been a loyal Firefox user for years, but with 7 being so buggy I'm done. And though I'm not that crazy about the look of Chrome, it works. Never running into a web site where the browser won't work is huge for me. That's the main reason I ran Firefox for so long. And though IE9 only had one problem in a month's time it will still remain my secondary browser to Chrome.

Anyone that knows me will tell you this is a bitter pill to swallow as I generally am anti-Google, but real world experience tells me it's the best fit for me.

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Chrome...

Naryan 7th Nov

Chrome is clearly the fastest, most complete web browser in 2011.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

tom@... 8th Nov

@Naryan ,,, Good grief, Charle Brown!!

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

essin 7th Nov

So - when the comparison is based on a feature that you need and one browser has it and the others don't, Which is faster? Any positive number is greater than ZERO.

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IDN support

jefsey@... 7th Nov

IDNs are a real issue to browsers, the way they support IDNA2003, cope with IDNA2008, can accept and transmit the entries as they have been entered.

Any lack in this three areas will obviously determine if they can be used by 80% of the users.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

Horus418 7th Nov

I will stick with Opera, works a charm on all OS, mobile and tablets. The one thing that is incredibly missing from these tests, is compliance testing. Opera is still the only one fighting the good fight, keeping the internet compliant across all devices and having standards that are stuck to.

To be honest I cannot think of a reason to move from Opera with the amount of functionality under the hood. I would be hard pushed to find anything anywhere close. The real shame is that certain servers and sites are made to function less well on competitive browsers. Google hides the Google+ in Opera, Microsoft still tries to make you use IE on it's sites, it is silly and uncompetitive.

Speed tests are irrelevant, compliance and standards are the only war worth fighting IMHO.

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I must agree

SlyTek 8th Nov

@Horus418
Opera has been a great browser for yrs!

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The Unsung Benchmark

ebhb2004@... Updated - 7th Nov

Chrome may be fast but not on my Mac. Windows may have the BSOD but Chrome has it's own version.

Safari & Opera work just fine for me. Not a single crash!! When all is said and done - I'll gladly wait the extra nanosecond and use Safari or Opera without getting Chrome's cutesy screen of death.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

William_Collins@... 7th Nov

IE 8 64-bit is just fine thank you. The only benchmark I'm interested in is performance and the 64-bit verson performs splendidly.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

mswift@... 7th Nov

So what do IE and Opera use for their in house testing?

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

ItsTheBottomLine 7th Nov

"Also, given how well IE 9 performed in these tests, sticking with the default browser that comes with Windows no longer gives you an inferior web experience." - and here we go...

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

neonspark 7th Nov

fact, HTML5 is not finalized so no browser is fully compliant.
fact, javascript performance in milliseconds stopped mattering ever since it started getting compiled instead of interpreted.
fact, people should pick their browsers based on usability and features, not stupid meaningless benchmarks engineered by companies that tilt the table in their favor to make them look better.
fact, what browser you use stopped mattering in the 1990's when nescape used to charge for cds.
fact, if you're a browser fanboy, get a life.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

ScorpioBlue 7th Nov

fact, people should pick their browsers based on usability and features, not stupid meaningless benchmarks engineered by companies that tilt the table in their favor to make them look better.

@neonspark

+ 1

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

doh123 7th Nov

so really... its about which browser benchmarks better on Windows... You cannot assume that on other OSes the results would be similar.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

_udo_ 7th Nov

User friendly interface is what counts most for me.

Fir example I recently dropped Safari for Mac, because of it inability to open links in the same window, even if "Never open in new window" is set in preferences. Safari looses connections in secure web sites, such as banking sites!

Another win for Firefox vs Safari is the close box on tabs being located on the right side of the tab.

Another another win for Firefox vs Safari is the location of the + button for new tabs.

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

lkujala 7th Nov

32bit versus 64bit performance? All new machines are running 64bit apps... so what is the performance difference?

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RE: The BIG browser benchmark! Chrome 15 vs Opera 11 vs IE9 vs Firefox 8 vs Safari 5

Qbt 8th Nov

@lkujala

Wrong, 64-bit machines are not running all 64-bit software. For instance, Windows 7 64-bit has both a 64-bit and 32-bit IE9 version, yet it defaults to using the 32-bit version.

Why? Because there is absolutely no reason whatsoever to run the 64-bit version, many plugins don't have 64-bit versions available and the 64-bit version of IE9 doesn't have the latest optomized rendering engine.

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Download Firefox 8

samzbest@... 8th Nov

When it comes to add-ons and non crashing from flash
firefox rocks
download firefox 8.0 here
http://thetechnologycafe.com/firefox-8now-available-for-download/

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And now the others tests

programaths 4th Dec

Partial : A browser is not only JavaScript and 2.0 websites do not only rely on it.
Biased : Due to previous weakness, conclusion is weak too. Argument is right, we don't care for nanoseconds, but against, these are others parameters not taken into account. So, you can't state it unless if you add : "Regarding JavaScript only ...".
(And even, people would misread it, so the statement should be clearer : "If JavaScript was the most important part of a browser engine then ...".
Advice : Users have a brain, sometimes they forget about it but don't help them to.
(Oh, yea, I mean have brains, but common, most often the first is true http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Sheep%20Effect&defid=5894907)
Milgram "effect"* : You are the authoritative, most user wont be critics. You've to turn on they "be critic" flag by a limpid statement : "Browsers are complex mechanics, in these benchmark, we will only consider the JavaScript part. Success of a browser in JavaScript only doesn't means success in general..."