Google Chrome
Google has been asked a lot about how they make Google Chrome browser so fast. Well finally they decided to put the following video together that walks you through some of components to the Chrome browser speed. I’m left to wonder however, now that they are sharing their secrets, can we expect other browsers to pick up some pointers and start adjusting their browsers accordingly – like Firefox, IE, and Safari?
From the Chromium Blog:
Earlier this year, we heard from many of you on how important speed is to your daily activities on the web. We kicked off a series of discussions with the Internet community on ways to make the web faster: from Internet protocols and best practices in website development, to improvements in the browser itself.
A lot of engineering effort is involved in making sure that a browser continually provides a fast, responsive, and satisfying experience on the web. We’re excited to see modern browsers continue to push the envelope in designing and optimizing browser architecture for speed and performance.
We’ve often been asked what makes Google Chrome so fast — from its snappy start-up time and fast page-loading, to the ability to run complex web applications quickly. To walk through some of the thought processes and technical decisions involved in making Google Chrome a fast browser, we’ve put together three technical interviews on DNS pre-resolution, the V8 JavaScript engine, and DOM bindings. In a future post, we’ll also cover other important areas like WebKit and UI responsiveness.
- What is DNS pre-resolution, and how does it make Google Chrome even faster?
- Why is DNS pre-resolution difficult to do?
- Explain in more detail how adaptive pre-resolution works.
- How else is DNS pre-resolution beneficial? Can it help with browser start-up time?
- How do we measure and benchmark the benefits of DNS pre-resolution?
- What’s next for DNS pre-resolution?
- What is V8?
- What are we currently doing to speed up JavaScript performance on V8?
- How do we achieve big boosts in JavaScript speed, such as the recent 150% improvement since our initial launch?
- How do we measure V8’s performance?
- What are DOM bindings?
- What are the most recent improvements in DOM bindings, for Google Chrome as well as other browsers?
- The Google Chrome beta release in August 2009 included improvements in DOM bindings. Tell us more.
- How do we measure and benchmark improvements in DOM bindings?
- In general, what are the biggest performance impediments for a browser?
- What are some of the performance benefits of Google Chrome’s multiprocess architecture?