Overview
Google, Apple, and Mozilla (the makers of Chrome, Safari, and Firefox) have joined to build Speedometer 3.0, a platform that’ll help the three companies benchmark the overall performance of web browsers.
The science and other stuff to know
Chrome is the default browser on many android smartphones and also a popular desktop web browser. It competes with Firefox, Safari, and many other open-source web browsers. While every browser has its perks and downsides, developers rely on metrics such as browser benchmarks to determine areas where particular services shine.
Speedometer is one such benchmark tool. This tool was launched by Apple’s WebKit team in 2014 and has seen only one major upgrade, Speedometer 2.0, which was done back in 2018. Apple’s WebKit team is now teaming up with Chrome and Firefox to develop a next-generation browser benchmark, dubbed Speedometer 3.0.
Three companies making a tool that’ll rate the effectiveness of their competing products sounds like a recipe for disaster. However, Google, Apple, and Mozilla have set up rules that prevent any of them from trying to tip the results in their favor.
According to Speedometer governance policy, nontrivial changes will require approval from “at least two of the participating browser projects” and can’t be implemented if there are strong objections from others. Also, major changes will require a consensus from every party involved.
So what?
This “cross-industry collaborative effort” will help in creating a new benchmark that’ll test how browsers perform while using the latest technological features and advancements.
Apple’s WebKit said, “working together will help us further improve the benchmark and improve browser performance for our users.”
A next-generation benchmark built by several web companies will also help provide a “shared understanding of what matters,” Mozilla added.
Unlike some past benchmarks, Speedometer 3 is being started as a cross-industry collaborative effort.
Building this will be hard work, and working together gives us a chance to build the best version to help make the Web faster for years to come. https://t.co/lZyegpIAeW— Mozilla Developer 👩🏾💻 (@mozhacks) December 15, 2022
What’s next?
The Speedometer 3.0 project is still in its infancy stage. And the GitHub repository for Speedometer doesn’t say much about the new version but warns that it’s currently “in active development and unstable.”
If you’re interested in checking out the stable version of Speedometer, GitHub recommends using Speedometer 2.1. It’s not clear when Speedometer 3 will be ready; however, it’s certainly pleasant to see everyone working jointly to make the web better.
