Coming together for version 3 of the browser benchmark
Google Chrome is the default browser on top Android phones and is also a popular desktop web browser. It competes with Mozilla Firefox, Microsoft Edge, Brave and many open-source alternatives besides the web browser found on Apple products, Safari. While every browser has its ups and downs, developers rely on metrics like browser benchmarks to determine where a particular offering excels. Speedometer is one such benchmark tool – it was set up in 2014 by Apple’s WebKit team – but it’s only had one major upgrade and that was way back in 2018. Well, the WebKit team is now joining folks of Chrome and Firefox parties to develop the next major iteration of the benchmark service, unsurprisingly named Speedometer 3.
It’s not very common for three competing companies to form partnerships, but that doesn’t mean their interests can’t be aligned with industry-wide improvements. In a tweet late last week, the WebKit team said this joint effort would make the benchmark itself better while improving browser performance for Apple users.
Twitter accounts belonging to the Mozilla Dev team and Google Chrome also confirmed the development, with the latter saying the collaboration will operate “on a collaborative governance model” with the aim of sharing each other’s work, leading to better performance for everyone.
It should be noted that in March this year, Google Chrome surpassed Safari as the fastest browser on Speedometer.
The GitHub repository for Speedometer doesn’t say much about the new 3.0 version, other than the fact that it’s under active development and is unstable. But developers are encouraged to keep checking the repository for updates on the upcoming release.
If you’re interested in a stable version of Speedometer, check out Speedometer 2.1, which was released in August this year.