Browser Battles: Speed Vs. Safety

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In the end, you have to pick your poison.

CNet's UK labs recently got a chance to test the forthcoming Mac version of Google's Chrome browser. Apparantly, it is smoking hot. In fact, whether it is for the Mac or PC; it's still smoking hot.

According to CNet:

- Mac Chrome is 34% faster than Apple's own Safari browser.
- Whereas Chrome clocked in at 657ms
- Keep that in mind when considering that Safari has been clocked at six times faster than IE8 and 42 times faster than IE7.
- Firefox is also back there in the dust, as well, along with Opera; FYI.

Speed is good. But, what if it comes at the expense of safety?

Keep in mind, this was a Microsoft sponsored test.

However, a recent comparison of browsers showed:

- Internet Explorer 8 detected malware infected code 81% of the time when exposed.

That sounds good, sort of. Although, I have to wonder about that 19% crack in the browser.

I shouldn't complain, however, after looking at the absymal showing of the other browsers:

- Coming in at a distant second place: Firefox at 27% of the time.
- Safari caught 21% of infected sites.
- Chrome 2.0 may be lickety-split. But, it caught only a paltry 7% of malware-laced sites.
- Opera was the worst: 1%!

Renee Oricchio

Renee Oricchio is a technology writer and former supervising news producer for CNN Financial News. She has been covering the computer industry since 1987. @oricchio