Together with Apple, Google, and Mozilla, they develop a Superior Browser Benchmark
Consent-based group governance should prevent any browser from gaining an undue advantage.
A better web browser benchmark is being developed by Google, Apple, and Mozilla. The developers of Chrome, Safari, and Firefox will collaborate across industries to develop Speedometer 3, a new model that balances their respective ideas for gauging responsiveness.
Making a tool that will score the efficacy of rival products by three different companies seems like a formula for disaster. The permission system of Speedometer's governance policy, however, varies depending on the implications. For instance, "non-trivial adjustments" will need approval from one of the other two parties while "major changes" will need approval from the other two businesses.
Meanwhile, a reviewer from any of the three browser manufacturers can approve "minor adjustments". The goal of the policy is for "the working team to be able to move swiftly for the majority of changes, with a greater level of procedure and agreement expected based on the effect of the change."
The undertaking will adhere to Speedometer 2, the most recent de facto standard created by the WebKit team at Apple. The top four browsers used now are Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Microsoft Edge, the fourth browser, relies on Google's open-sourced Chromium with the Blink and V8 engines rather than running its own engine.
The GitHub page for the Speedometer 3 project notes that it is "under active development and is unstable," even though it is still in its early stages. Although we don't yet know when Speedometer 3 will be ready, the groups advise utilizing Speedometer 2.1 until development is further along.
The significance of such a replacement was explained in a Tweet from the Mozilla Developer (opens in new tab) account: “No one intentionally creates a website that lags or stutters. The Internet promises pristine experiences, yet it frequently falls short. When this happens, customers suffer.”
The discussion about why Speedometer 2, which was released in 2018, needs to be replaced since the internet has developed is still ongoing.
Safari is powered on WebKit, an open-source project backed by Apple that was less transparent on social media. There was little more to it than an announcement of the three parties' plans to collaborate, with the statement that "working together will aid [the three firms] further strengthen the benchmark and enhance browser efficiency for [their] customers."
About 19% and 3%, respectively, of the market share for all browsers go to Safari and Firefox.
Although the improvements are now mainly unknown, a GitHub post (opens in new tab) describes how the partnership will operate. There could be three different kinds of changes: minor changes that only need reviewer permission, significant changes that need approval from all organizations, and non-trivial changes that need approval from at least two organizations.
