Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2, Google Chrome Beta and Firefox 3.1 Alpha 2 Release Candidate are all development milestones of the browsers developed by Microsoft, Google and Mozilla. Of course that with the advent of Google Browser (Chrome) on September 2, 2008, the browser market is bound to see additional competition, and in this context, comparisons are inherent.
IE8 Beta 2, Chrome and Firefox 3.1 have already been thrown against one another in arenas designed to evaluate their
resource consumption and the
performance of their JavaScript engines. But, naturally, there is always the aspect of web standard compliance and support. For this there are two browser measuring tools, namely the Acid2 and Acid3 tests from the Web Standards Project.
"Acid2 tests features that web designers have been requesting. Everything that Acid2 tests is specified in a Web standard, but not all Web standards are tested. Acid2 does not guarantee conformance with any specification. After careful consideration, we have selected and are testing the features we consider most important for the future of the web," reads an excerpt from the description of the Acid2 Test.
As you can very well see from the screenshots integrated at the bottom of this article, IE8 Beta 1, Google Chrome Beta, and Firefox 3.1 codename Shiretoko Alpha 2 RC all pass the Acid2 Test with flying colors, as should in fact be expected. However, not the same can be said about the Acid3 Test. Actually, quite on the contrary, all three browser versions fail miserably.
"Acid3 is primarily testing specifications for "Web 2.0" dynamic Web applications. Also there are some visual rendering tests, including webfonts," reveals a message posted on the official Acid3 test webpage.
When it comes down to the Acid3 test, Firefox 3.1 codename Shiretoko leads the pack with a score of 85 out of 100. Google Chrome, although just a first Beta, comes in second with 78 out of 100. And Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is third with an insignificant 21 out of 100.
Google Chrome is available for download here.
Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 is available for download here.
Firefox 3.0.1 for Windows is available for download here.
Firefox 3.0.1 for Linux is available for download here.
Firefox 3.0.1 for Mac OS X is available for download here.
