Apple, Google, and Mozilla have announced a collaboration to develop Speedometer 3, a benchmark for testing the performance of web browsers and their rendering engines.
The project aims to create a test that accurately reflects real-world usage scenarios and is based on common standards. Apple’s Webkit team mainly developed previous versions of the benchmark, but this time the project will be a collaborative effort between the three companies.
According to Mozilla, the new benchmark will be able to weigh only what matters. It will require the input and collaboration of web developers, standards bodies, framework builders, and browser vendors to create a shared understanding of what matters. The project will be open-source and hosted on GitHub, where rules governing its development and updates will also be available. Non-trivial changes, or those with minimal impact, will require the approval of at least two participating projects and cannot be implemented if there are strong objections from at least one company. Major changes will require unanimous consent.
The Speedometer 3 benchmark will test the performance of browser engines such as WebKit, Quantum, and Blink, as well as JavaScript engines like Google V8 and Mozilla SpiderMonkey. It will mimic a typical user’s actions to assess a browser’s performance accurately. While the project is still in the development stage and is currently unstable, the creators anticipate that having such a feature available will enhance browser performance overall.
