Most of us probably don’t consider the energy footprint of our web browser, however Microsoft recently announced that its new Internet Explorer 9 has a leg up on the competition in regards to energy efficiency. Microsoft took the top five most popular browsers (Chrome 10, Firefox 4, Safari 5, Opera 11 and Internet Explorer 9) and ran them through several test to see how they measured up. They found that IE9 was the fastest and consumed the least amount of energy, resulting in longer laptop battery life and lower electricity costs.
Using an Intel laptop running Windows 7, Microsoft observed the performance of each browser in 5 scenarios. First they measured the amount of power that was consumed with no browser running. Next they measured the power used on an about:blank page and then the power used while running a typical news-based site. For scenario 4 and 5 they measured the browser’s energy consumption while running them on two performance test sites – Galactic and FishIE Tank.
As for the results… according to their data, Opera 11 is by far the least efficient, followed (almost neck in neck) by Safari 5 and Chrome 10, with Firefox 4 trailing in second (but not by much).
Via Engadget
This just in, Microsoft funds its own study of web browsers and finds that it’s own browsers is the best.
In other news, it is discovered after a $1 million study that water is wet. Back to you Carol…
Not to be a downer — but their results don’t make any sense. They say that Chrome uses the most power on a news website, but has the third best battery life. How does that work? And on a blank page… it should be chrome, IE, firefox, safari, opera — but that’s just totally wrong! Not to say that Microsoft is some evil corporation, but I wouldn’t trust a company touting it’s own product with it’s own data, especially when it contradicts itself! I think what’s more important is what kind of computer you have — and if you’re serious about energy efficiency and sustainable design, no one seems to care as much as Apple.