Google Chrome already dominates the browser market, but the search-engine tech giant refuses to rest on its laurels. Google published a new blog post boasting about Chrome’s speed performance, and if I were Apple, I’d be sweating bullets.
Google says Chrome is the fastest browser on macOS to date, leaving Safari and other browsers in its dust. Safari, securing 10% of the desktop browser market share, is the world’s second-most used desktop browser next to Google Chrome (65%). Safari may lose ground if Chrome continues to outshine the Apple browser on its own turf.
Chrome outperforms macOS Safari
Google claims that Chrome (version 99) is a speed beast, flying past all macOS browsers during its performance testing. “Chrome on Mac has achieved the highest score to date of any browser – 300 – in Apple’s Speedometer browser responsiveness benchmark,” Senior Director of Chrome Engineering Max Christoff said.
Chrome on macOS is reportedly 7% faster than current builds of Safari, making the Google browser even more attractive to Mac users while Safari struggles to secure more market share. You may be wondering, “What, exactly, did Google do to make Chrome faster?”
Well, according to Christoff, the Google team implemented a “build optimization technique” called ThinLTO; it also enhanced the browser’s graphics processing. As such, Google boasts that Chrome’s graphics performance is 15% faster than Safari.
“Overall, since launching Chrome on M1-based Macs in late 2020, Chrome is now 43% faster than it was just 17 months ago,” Christoff said. It’s worth noting that Google compared the two browsers, Chrome and Safari, on an M1 Max-equipped 14-inch MacBook Pro.
Google also recorded impressive results after tweaking the Android-based Chrome browser. Loading pages with the Google web crawler is now 15% faster on Android devices. Christoff attributed the improvement to “prioritizing critical navigation movements.”
This report may light a fire under Apple’s behind. If there’s anything we know about the Cupertino-based tech giant, it has a penchant for ensuring that its products are the fastest. Chrome is ahead for now, but that may change in a flash once Apple works its magic on Safari.
