THE BATTLE of the browsers is heating up.
In a blog post on Monday, Google claimed that Chrome’s latest update makes it faster than bitter rival Safari, which is developed by Apple.
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The pair have for years fought for the crown of “world’s top browser”, with Chrome currently boasting three times more users than Safari.
It appears that the lastest iteration of Google’s software, version M99, could widen the gap even further.
According to the search giant, engineers were able to “substantially” raise the speed of the browser “across all major platforms.”
It’s now 43 per cent faster than it was around a year and a half ago, the team wrote, thanks to tweaks to the software’s code.
Chrome is now so speedy, in fact, that it’s the fastest browser on Apple’s latest Mac PCs – seven per cent quicker than Safari.
According to Google, its software set a record score of 300 on Speedometer, a tool created by Apple to measure app performance.
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The benchmark simulates what it’s like to use a web app running on various systems to see how responsive the experience is.
“We go deep on every platform where Chrome runs to provide the fastest possible experience,” Google wrote.
“We’re excited to announce that in M99, Chrome on Mac has achieved the highest score to date of any browser – 300 – in Apple’s Speedometer browser responsiveness benchmark.”
Version M99 also boosts Chrome’s performance on Android – Google’s own operating system that runs on billions of devices worldwide.
Fierce rivals Chrome and Safari are the world’s two most popular browsers respectively.
Google’s software is loaded onto every Android device while Safari is the default web app on iPhone, iPad and Mac.
However, while Chrome is used by 2.65billion people, Safari trails a distant second in the world rankings with around 844million users.
Apple’s pitch for Safari has always leaned on the idea that it’s the best browser to use on its devices due to the app’s lightning-fast performance and seamless integration between gadgets.
Google’s latest update casts doubt on that claim and could even tempt some Safari users to defect to Chrome.
However, most people are pretty stuck in their ways when it comes to their preferred browser, so don’t expect a mass exodus any time soon.
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In other news, the mystery surrounding why prehistoric Brits built Stonehenge has finally been solved after research confirmed that the monument served as an ancient solar calendar.
In other news, the iPhone’s virtual assistant, Siri, is getting a new, “gender-neutral” voice.
A British woman has told of her horror after scammers used photos of a “silver fox” politician to trick her out of £80,000.
And, Norfolk County Council is suing Apple over what it says was misleading information about iPhone sales.
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This post first appeared on Thesun.co.uk
