Fastest Browser

When we speak of the fastest browser we should keep in mind that each person has different uses for and different expectations from their web browser. There are many choices of web browsers to choose from, and some people even choose compatibility and features ahead of speed. The choice of web browser is also heavily dependent on the operating system being used, as not all browsers are universal.

In case you do not know what a web browser is exactly, you should know that it is an application that lets you view pages over the Internet. The icon that you click on in order to surf the net, and the page where you enter the web address of the website you wish to visit, is all a part of the web browser that you are using. Using the fastest browser for your operating system obviously means that you are able to access and open pages at a faster speed.

What Determines Browser Speed

Let's now take a look at the features that actually make a browser faster than another. The amount of time that it takes for you to click on the icon of the browser and actually see an open website in front of you is merely the tip of the iceberg. Here are all the features that are taken into consideration when determining the fastest browser for different systems.

• Cold Start: This is the amount of time it takes to open the web browser as the first program, as soon as the machine boots up. It is important to check the cold start time for a browser with all the default settings of the web browser.
• Warm Start: This needs to be done after a cold start has been completed. Once the browser is open, it needs to be closed and then opened again. The average between these two times is the time the browser takes to start.
• Script Speed: The script speed of the browser is a collection of string manipulation, DHTML, mathematical calculations, page content manipulation, table manipulation, window management and image swapping that occurs in the browser when it is started. To check this speed a particular software tool is necessary, and the test needs to be run after clearing a browser cache and enabling pop-ups.
• Images: This is just to check how fast your browser can open multiple images on a webpage. There are many different ways of checking this, but the most common is to simply make use of a Google Images search. The rendering of multiple images on the browser plays a huge part in determining which is the fastest browser.
• Rendering CSS: This is a feature that helps one check how fast the browser cam load webpages, and to render them. Rendering a page refers to the manner and proportion in which it appears on the screen, and plays an important role in determining browser speed.
• Rendering Tables: Similar to the rendering CSS test, a rendering table test checks how a table is rendered and presented on a webpage. Needless to say, this also determines the speed of a browser.
• History: This is an aspect of determining the fastest browser that is often overlooked. This gives one an idea about how long a browser takes to open webpages that have already been opened before, and exist in this history of the browser.

All these factors play a huge role in determining the fastest browser, and there are various tools that are made of for studying and measuring the speed of all the types of web browsers. You must also remember that the hardware of laptop computers and desktop computers also play a role in the browser speed. A slower computer by nature will be unable to run a browser as fast as it can really run.

Which is the Fastest Browser

So now let's see which is the best browser keeping all these considerations and factors in mind. After conducting all these tests, experts have found the following results.

• Fastest browser for Windows 7 - Opera is the fastest.
• Fastest browser for Windows Vista - Opera is again the fastest.
• Fastest browser for Mac OS X - Opera and Safari are equally fast.
• Fastest browser for Linux - Konqueror is the fastest.

Each browser has their own strengths and weaknesses, and as mentioned before, everyone has differing expectations from their browsers because they use them for different purposes. On an average, these browsers mentioned here are the fastest browsers for these corresponding operating systems.