[vox-tech] Browser speed

[Karsten M. Self]

on Fri, Feb 11, 2005 at 07:30:17PM -0500, Peter Jay Salzman (p at dirac.org) wrote:
> In case you haven't read /. yet...
> 
> http://www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html#linspeed
> 
> I'm not even slightly surprised at the results.

I'm not even slightly impressed by the relevance.

"Speed" defined as "time until foo process is completed" is easy to
measure.  It's also often highly irrelevant, though not fully.

If a browser allows the user to _start_ reading a page before it's fully
loaded, TTR (time to read) rather than TTL (time to load).  But it's
harder to measure.

I also see a significant differnece in browser responsiveness when task
switching, window resizing, or pulling up dialogs.  For which Mozilla
and Firebird fare far poorer than Galeon (1.3.x).  And have a notable
impact on the perception of responsiveness.

Other factors of browser usability don't really relate to speed at all:

  - Stability.

  - Features.

  - UI access (a combination of features and how hard they are to get
    to).

  - Crash / session recovery.

  - User preferences:  bookmarks, passwords, forms, etc.

  - Security.

  - Privacy.

...etc.


There's a strong focus in a lot of areas (CPUs, auto traffic, overnight
shipping) on speed because you can measure it easily, usually with
little more than a stopwatch.  But its relvance to overall experience,
safety, or satisfaction is often slight at best.

An amusing diversion, but not highly relevant.


Peace.

-- 
Karsten M. Self <kmself at ix.netcom.com>        http://kmself.home.netcom.com/
 What Part of "Gestalt" don't you understand?
    KQED FM:  The DUMB spot on the dial:
    http://groups.google.com/groups?selm=rhpdc.95571%24gA5.1259567%40attbi_s03
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