Posts tagged Safari
Yup, Silk is Slow – Tests Confirm Amazon’s Browser is Slower Than iPad’s Safari
Dec 2nd
As soon as Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablet started shipping last month, users eagerly unboxed it, took it for a spin and started posting their reviews online. Some were enamored with the device through and through, while others expressed disappointment over its shortcomings, one of which was a slower browsing experience than expected. As compelling as they may be, what many of these first impressions lack is hard data to back them up. Until now.
Google employee and Web performance expert Steve Souders decided to put Silk through its paces and test its performance alongside other leading tablet devices. He loaded a series of 11 URL’s on the Fire, iPad 1, iPad 2 and Galaxy Tab versions 7.0 and 10.1. Souders, who created the Y Slow Firefox plugin while working at Yahoo, used a tool he built called Loadtimer to test the load speeds of each site. The results confirm what many have already noticed: Silk is slow.
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Silk is Slower Than Expected, But It’s Also Brand New
In most cases, Safari on the the iPad 2 loaded pages more quickly than Silk did. The Galaxy Tab also loaded 3 out of 11 pages more quickly than the Kindle Fire. In a few cases, results were mixed because one device would pull up a mobile-optimized version of a site, while the other would load the desktop version. Souders made note of those discrepancies and they didn’t appear to have a huge impact on the study. Safari on the iPad 1 was slower than Silk in every example, so Souders focused his results on the iPad 2.
Curiously, Silk performed better when it’s so called “cloud acceleration” feature was turned off. A similar study conducted by Fox News found that cloud acceleration slowed down Silk’s performance by about 25%.
This split architecture utilizes Amazon’s vast cloud infrastructure to offset some of the burden of loading Web pages at the browser level. It was a key selling point of Amazon’s new browser and was touted proudly in the initial launch and subsequent marketing of the Kindle Fire. For his study, Souders, compared the iPad and Galaxy Tab to Silk with acceleration turned off, since keeping it on added a substantial amount of time to page loads.
As Souders points out, this is only the first iteration of Silk and like all Web browsers, it will continue to be improved upon as new versions are released. In the meantime, Kindle Fire owners may want to turn the acceleration feature off, especially if they’re not satisfied with the speed of their browsing experience.
Silk’s cloud acceleration feature became the subject of controversy when it was first unveiled. Because of the way the browser loads pages, routing requests through Amazon’s servers, concerns have been raised that the privacy of users’ browsing habits may be at risk. The Electronic Frontier Foundation asked Amazon to clarify a few things in light of the controversy, and the organization later said it was satisfied with Amazon’s response, which assuaged many of their concerns. The United States Congress, however, wasn’t convinced and have pressed Amazon for more answers.
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Browsers in 2011: Chrome & Mobile Safari on The Rise
Nov 30th
In our Top Consumer Products of 2011 list, we selected the Chrome web browser as our number 1 pick. Its market share has grown over 2011 and it’s on track to surpass Firefox as the 2nd most popular browser on the desktop (exactly when it passes Firefox depends on whose statistics you read). Over 2011 Google has demonstrated, in both user numbers and technical innovation, that Chrome is the most significant challenge to Microsoft’s dominance of the browser market since the days of Netscape Navigator in the late 90s.
Meanwhile, in the mobile browser market, Apple’s Safari has risen over 12 percentage points to have a 62% share of that market, according to leading Internet statistics provider Net Applications. However, Apple will have to continue to look over its shoulder at Android, which has also gained over 2011. Let’s look more closely at how the desktop and mobile browser markets changed over 2011.
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In the desktop market, the main story is how Chrome has affected Firefox. Just three years ago, in our Top Consumer Products of 2008 list, we had Firefox at number 2, behind only Twitter. It goes to show how quickly things can change on the Web.
The latest data from Net Applications still shows Microsoft’s Internet Explorer at over 50% market share on desktops (52.63%). Chrome (17.62%) is less than 5 percentage points below Firefox (22.52%), which hangs onto second spot for now. Safari has 5.43% and Opera 1.56%.
The trends data is more telling. Since December 2010, only Chrome and Safari have increased their market share. IE, Firefox and Opera all declined. Here are the gains and losses:
- IE: -6.63%
- Firefox: -1.17%
- Chrome: +7.26%
- Safari: +1.41%
- Opera: -0.71%
Source: Net Applications
Our own browser statistics for ReadWriteWeb show an even bigger swing towards Chrome, which is understandable, as we have a much more tech-savvy audience compared to the data from Net Applications. Chrome became the number 1 browser among RWW readers during 2011. Last month it was about 36%, up 12% from last November. Firefox is our number 2 browser at about 29%, down nearly 4% over the year.
Among our own writers, most now use Chrome as their primary desktop browser. Very few use Firefox.
Of course in an increasingly multi-device world, mobile browser share is very important too. On that front, according to Net Applications, Safari has risen 12.86% to now have 62.03% of the mobile browser share. The next best is Android browser at 18.60%. So Safari on mobile is now almost the equivalent of IE on desktop.
The big losers over 2011 in the mobile browser market have been Opera Mini (-13.4%), Symbian (-4.94%) and Blackberry (-0.87%, but it only has 2.03% share overall). Opera, despite its constant innovation, is really struggling to keep hold of users on both its favored mobile platform and on the desktop.
Source: Net Applications
Google & Apple Have The Momentum Heading Into 2012
In Net Application’s statistics, Firefox is holding grimly on in the desktop browser market. But Chrome has the momentum and, as Jon Mitchell pointed out, it has done much of the innovating in this market over 2011. ReadWriteWeb’s own statistics have Chrome as a clear number 1, which is typically a good indicator of where the mainstream is heading. All of this suggests that Chrome will overtake Firefox as the number 2 browser very soon. Then Google is set to make a run at dethroning Microsoft from number 1, but that’s still at least a couple of years away.
On the mobile browser side, Apple is becoming increasingly dominant. However the rapid growth of the Android platform will keep them on their toes, so it’s unlikely that Apple will enjoy the monopoly that Microsoft had for over a decade in the desktop market.
Let us know in the comments what browsers you use on both desktop and mobile. Did you switch browsers during 2011? If so, tell us why.
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Apple OS X Lion Brings Host of Security Updates to Safari
Jul 22nd
In the first day of that Lion was available for Max OS X, it was downloaded over a million times. That is impressive but coming from Apple, is that really a surprise? In addition to all the goodies that Lion brings, a host of security updates were also bundled into the update of Safari as Apple starts pushing security patches more frequently.
There were 57 security patches for Safari in the update to version 5.1 and 5.0.6 and most of them have to do with “remote code execution” which is security slang for “drive-by malicious downloads.” Yes, Apple fans, your computer is just as vulnerable to malware if you visit a malicious site as any PC. This update for Safari will help alleviate some of the problems but as Macs gain more market steam, expect a lot more security updates to come from Cupertino.
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The Safari updates are not limited to Lion but also computers running Windows computers running Safari. There is a touch of irony for any user infected with malware on Windows while running an OS X product. As for Safari itself, most of the updates are patches in vulnerabilities related to WebKit, the layout engine Apple’s uses for Safari to render Web pages.
Included in the WebKit updates there are a variety of terms that Windows users may be familiar with if they follow the security patches on their computers regularly. Vulnerabilities have been patched for URL spoofing (when the browser goes to a different location than what is in the address bar), malicious RSS feeds, cross-site scripting. Almost all of the WebKit updates start with “visiting a maliciously crafted website may lead to … .” Essentially, that refers to drive-by downloads when Safari visits malware infected sites.
Here is an example:
Apple released Mac OS X 10.6.8 in preparation for Lion 10.7 in late June and it also brought a plethora of security updates for both the operating system and Safari. About a month later come the next round of security updates, this time almost double the 28 items found in the 10.6.8 update. At this rate, it won’t be long until Apple is issuing weekly updates to OS X, just like Microsoft does with “patch Tuesday.”
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Chrome Left Behind as Safari Gets “Do Not Track”
Apr 13th
Apple has added the “Do Not Track” option to the latest version of its default browser, Safari, catching up with the rest of the browser market. The Federal Trade Commission suggested the feature late last year during an investigation of ways to protect consumer privacy and, since then, most major browsers have adopted it.
“Do Not Track” gives users the ability to identify and opt out of certain type of online tracking.
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Microsoft first demonstrated the functionality as part of its then-upcoming browser, Internet Explorer 9, last December. Then, in January, Mozilla added the functionality to Firefox, while Google announced a browser extension to perform a similar function.
Today, Apple rounded out the list of major browsers by adding "Do Not Track" to a test version of Safari. According to The Wall Street Journal, “the tool is included within the latest test release of Lion, a version of Apple’s Mac OS X operating system that is currently available only to developers.”
The addition leaves Chrome as the only major browser without built-in “Do Not Track” support.
When Google announced the browser extension, an FTC spokesperson was quoted in The New York Times as saying, “We’re pleased that Google is engaged in the process, but Mozilla and Microsoft are clearly steps ahead.” It looks like Apple has joined the pack.
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Apple Adds Bing to Safari, Prelude to Ditching Google?
Jun 7th
Apple’s Steve Jobs announce many new and exciting things during his keynote speech for WWDC event this morning. One announcement related to search was of course about the Apple including Bing as one of the search engine choices for its Safari browser. Take note, it’s just “one of the search engine options” not yet the default browser.
Still, it’s pretty interesting to note that Apple has to do this in the height of a “silent war” going on between Google and Apple. Whether Apple is planning to ditch Google mobile search or not, time can only tell. But this move could be the initial step.
According to the Bing blog, Bing will now be an option for search engine within Safari for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch as well as on Mac and PC. Bing is also working closely with Apple for to include some HTML5 support for Safari on iPhone. In fact Bing has just integrated HTML 5 into its mobile browse product at m.bing.com.
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Apple Adds Bing to Safari, Prelude to Ditching Google?
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