Safari 5... Yes, It's Fast

How fast? Faster than Chrome fast...

Here's Google Chrome 5.0.375.70 beta (nothing else open): 401.4ms
... And here's Safari 5 (nothing else open): 344.6ms

This is on my 13" MacBook Pro using the industry standard SunSpider JavaScript benchmark, which gives a good idea of performance in the real world since JavaScript is one of the most substantial ways a browser can affect performance. Sadly, I didn't think to benchmark Safari 4 before upgrading, but know it was always substantially slower than Chrome. I like this trend - browsers competing to be lighterweight and faster, while more standards compliant. Personally, I like that you can theme Google Chrome and I like the in-line PDF viewing of Safari. Tough choice, though I am sticking with Chrome... for now. I do plan to play with Safari 5 more tonight, and may (or may not) write more about it if I find something else cool and noteworthy.

P.S. For anyone wondering how Firefox 3.6.3 would do in this comparison... it ain't pretty: 1024.8ms. Finally, lest I forget Opera 10.53: 431.8ms. Browsers (except Firefox) have clearly been tweaking their script performance very well and are doing, in general, a great job. Firefox - once my favorite browser - is really, quite frankly, falling behind. That's what popularity does to you I guess...