Switching Browsers Saves Money
Nobody likes waiting, but a slow browser is more than a simple annoyance: It’s expensive. Switching to a lightning-fast browser could be worth hundreds of dollars to you.
Here’s why: The average Internet user spends a shocking 68 hours per month online. If you work online, that number may be much higher. People average 58 seconds on each page. 68 hours divided by 58 seconds means the average user visits a whopping 4,300 web pages every month.
If your browser takes one extra second to load each page, you’re wasting an hour and fifteen minutes every month, just waiting for sites to load.
The cost of this time sap becomes clear when you consider the hourly rate you bill your clients:
- An attorney charges $400/hour
- A chiropractor charges $250/hour
- A programmer charges $70/hour
You get the idea. Saving one second per page is worth $400/month to the attorney. But what happens if his support staff also switches? His entire office? The whole firm? If an office of thirty people switches, the time saved is equivalent to hiring another part-time employee. The hours add up quickly.
Google Chrome is faster than the most recent versions of Internet Explorer or Firefox. It’s more than 4 times faster than old versions of Internet Explorer, which many organizations still use. Chrome is even faster than lightning (almost).
As a time management and productivity coach, I’m telling you: If you’re not already using Google Chrome, you’re missing out.
One other perk: Chrome has a simpler interface without all the toolbars which clutter Internet Explorer. Many people switch to Chrome simply to avoid the distractions created by the toolbars in Internet Explorer.
You can see screenshots here:
http://image.chromefans.org/id1/google-chrome-interface.png
Comment by Coach Nate — 15 February 2011 @ 11:37 am
Thoroughly agree. I’ve tried every browser under the sun, and there is nothing like Google Chrome for the best in speed and reliability.
Comment by Hanna — 15 February 2011 @ 12:03 pm
It’s MUCH bigger than just a few seconds per page. Slow page loads tempt you to switch to other tabs or other things–interrupting yourself and losing track of what you were doing. It can easily cost you an hour a day in lost focus.
Comment by Kevin Crenshaw — 16 February 2011 @ 8:13 am
Incorrect! That is an old mis-conception.
Use the SunSpider 0.9.1 JavaScript Benchmark to test the browser speeds:
Firefox 6 came back with 364.3ms
Chrome 380.6ms (slower)
Both browsers are blown away by IE9 – 314.1ms
Tested 19th Sept. 2011
Comment by Anthony — 19 September 2011 @ 1:54 am
@Anthony:
“Misconception” may be the wrong word. I switched to Chrome the day after they released their first beta build, and it was twice as fast as Firefox, which (at the time) was more than twice as fast as IE. A few weeks later, Chrome released and updated build that was twice as fast as the old version. When this article was published, IE 9 wasn’t public. That was then.
But let’s update the content on this article: We’re now in September of 2011. Right now, most people (43%) are using a version of IE earlier than 9 (fully 10% of web traffic still runs on IE 7). More Firefox users run 3.6 than run 5.0, largely because of compatibility issues with their plugins. When you run benchmarks for the latest Chrome (and Chrome always keeps itself updated) against what people are really using, there’s no comparison: Chrome wins easily.
IE 9 might have better benchmarks, but I have four strong reasons for still recommending Chrome over Internet Explorer 9:
1) Keep it light. The world is teeming with IE add-ons. Half the programs on your computer want to “enhance” your browsing experience, and most browser-specific adware/spyware is aimed at IE. Even if you think you are free of add-ons, you probably aren’t.
2) Simplicity. Chrome wins for simplest layout. Even extensions occupy a conservative amount of space, leaving maximum room for what you really want to do: browse the Internet.
3) Marginal improvement. IE 9 doesn’t win all benchmark tests. When it wins, it’s by an imperceptible margin (.042 seconds), and that’s IE 9 before add-ons.
4) Innovation vs. catch-up. Internet Explorer has consistently been the last browser to support the latest standards in Internet browsing. It may have stepped ahead of the curve on benchmark tests, but don’t expect it to stay there.
The ultimate test is the user test. Last week I was helping a client set up her TRO training, and we ran into what appeared to be an IE problem. We installed Chrome on her computer, and after watching just two pages load she said, “Wow, that’s fast! Can I set this as my default browser?” And we did.
Comment by Coach Nate — 19 September 2011 @ 5:43 pm
Another interesting post.
Comment by Jimmy Austen — 23 September 2011 @ 7:20 pm
I agree. I’m a long time user of both Safari and Firefox (on a Mac). After switching to Chrome and spending time learning how to set it up and use it efficiently, I’ll never go back!
Comment by john — 13 October 2011 @ 1:07 pm