Google says Chrome 99 on macOS outperforms Safari on WebKit's Speedometer 2.0 benchmark by 15%, scoring 300 points, the fastest performance of any browser yet
here's why Malcolm Owen / AppleInsider : Chrome beats Safari in Apple's Speedometer browser test Roman Loyola / Macworld : Google's latest Chrome for Mac update is faster than Safari-for now David Matthews / Digital Trends : The new Mac version of Chrome destroys Safari in performance Kellen / Droid Life : Chrome for Android is Faster Than Ever Juli Clover / MacRumors : Chrome Now Scores Faster Than Safari in Speedometer Benchmark Jon Fingas / Engadget : Google says the latest Chrome on Mac outperforms Safari Tweets: Gary Bernhardt / @garybernhardt : Web Bluetooth is only supported on Chrome (and others using Blink). Also NFC, USB, File System Access, Serial, and many more. I often see “Safari doesn't support these APIs because Apple is anticompetitive”, but Firefox lists all of these APIs as harmful. https://mozilla.github.io/... Emil Protalinski / @epro : Brave still scores 186 for me on Speedometer 2.0, so I look forward to these speed improvements trickling down https://twitter.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
Chrome’s Mac performance claim adds a measurable competitive point to earlier criticism that Safari’s slow feature adoption and bug fixes were harming the web. It puts Google and Apple in direct comparison on a responsiveness test associated with WebKit.
The result also sits at the start of a shift in how browser performance is measured: Apple, Google, and Mozilla later worked on a jointly developed Speedometer 3, which was subsequently launched with Microsoft as a shared performance reference.
First-order effects
- Google gains a 300-point, 15% performance claim for Chrome 99 on macOS, giving it a concrete comparison against Safari for Mac users and developers.
- Apple’s Safari is immediately exposed to a public responsiveness comparison on Speedometer 2.0, a benchmark tied to its WebKit ecosystem.
Second-order effects
- The benchmark result amplifies scrutiny of Safari’s browser-development pace, extending a prior debate over feature support and bugs into an easily communicated performance measure.
- Google can distinguish Chrome’s Mac implementation from its iOS browser, where an earlier speedup came through Apple’s WKWebView, limiting browser-engine differentiation.
Third-order effects
- Joint work on Speedometer 3 points toward browser vendors competing through a more collectively governed measure rather than relying solely on performance claims around a WebKit-originated test.
- If shared benchmarks become the reference point, browser performance leadership will be contested not just in products but in the design and maintenance of the tests that define responsiveness.
The trend: Browser vendors are moving from isolated speed claims toward shared benchmarks that make performance a more visible competitive and governance issue.