Coming together for version 3 of the browser benchmark
Google Chrome is the default browser on the best Android phones and is also a popular desktop web browser. It competes with Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave, and many open-source alternatives in addition to the web browser found on Apple products, Safari. While each browser has its positives and negatives, developers rely on metrics like browser benchmarks to determine the area where a particular offering shines. Speedometer is one such benchmark tool — it was set up by Apple’s WebKit team back in 2014 — but it’s only seen one major upgrade and that was way back in 2018. Well, the WebKit team is now joining up with folks on the Chrome and Firefox sides to develop the next big iteration of the benchmark service, unsurprisingly named Speedometer 3.
It’s not terribly common to encounter partnerships between three competing companies, but that’s not to say that their interests can’t align toward industry-wide improvements. In a tweet late last week, the WebKit team said this joint effort would make the benchmark itself better while also enhancing browser performance for Apple users.
Twitter accounts belonging to the Mozilla Dev team and Google Chrome also confirmed the development with the latter saying that the collaboration will operate “on a joint governance model” with the goal of sharing each other’s work, leading to better performance for all.
It should be noted that Google Chrome surpassed Safari as the fastest browser on Speedometer in March this year.
The GitHub repository for Speedometer doesn’t say much about the new 3.0 version aside from the fact that it’s in active development and is unstable. But developers are encouraged to keep checking the repository for updates on the forthcoming release.
If you’re interested in checking out a stable version of Speedometer, have a gander at Speedometer 2.1, which was released in August this year.
