IE 8 getting better but still slower
Microsoft quietly released Internet Explorer 8 last week without the usual fanfare that goes with a new Internet Explorer release. With that in mind reviews have been fairly slim on the ground but that’s not surprising. The fact of the matter is that the latest incarnation of IE just doesn’t bring much new to the table. The major improvements according to Microsoft’s own web site are around catching up with Firefox and the other web browsers in the areas of security and privacy and some minor UI additions to make browsing a bit better. Which I must say are quite nifty but definitely not ground breaking with most features being available through various third party plugins.
The most fascinating claim about IE 8 is that it is one of the fastest web browsers. This would suggest that there have been some huge increases in performance because Webslug – which allows you to check and compare website performance has the older version of Explorer and IE 8 listed quite squarely down the bottom. This isn’t surprising as one of the first things almost every convert says is how much slower IE was.
The list of fastest browsers according to Webslug
As you can see IE 8 is definitely an improvement but it’s still far from being amongst the fastest browsers.
Note: You can ignore the fact that Firefox shows up as being slower than IE 8. The browser detection software used on Webslug marks some Firefox as Mozilla and some as Firefox. The real amount is an average of the two numbers still putting it well ahead of IE.
What’s laughable is that a video (youtube link) on Microsoft’s IE 8 mini-site claims that IE 8 is faster at loading google.com than Firefox, a claim that the figures on Webslug for google.com using IE 8 clearly show is incorrect.
They then go on to say that IE 8 loads faster on 3 times as many of the top 25 sites as Firefox and more than Chrome.
Capture from MS video claiming IE8 is faster than Firefox & Chrome
Clearly Microsoft have either tweaked IE for these sites, are plain lieing or their testing setup was flawed. I’m claiming the latter. It’s quite clear to both the average user and from real world performance tests using sites like Webslug that IE 8 is definitely not faster than Firefox or Chrome.
Internet Explorer is getting better but in terms of fully featured browsers Safari, Firefox and Chrome still rules the roost.
For those who missed the link , here’s the video Microsoft released claiming IE is faster than both Firefox and Chrome.
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