FeasibilityStudyonBrowsersfortheUniversityofNorthTexas

Prepared for:
Terry Smith
Prepared by:
J eremy Taylor
Edwin Torres
Sarah Torres
Carlos Tovar
Mr. Smith
TECM 2700.028
iii
Table of contents
Contents
Table of contents ............................................................................................................................ iii
ExecutiveSummary ..................................................................................................................... 5
Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3
MethodsofEvaluation ................................................................................................................. 5
InformationGathered ................................................................................................................... 5
SurveyExample ........................................................................................................................... 6
ResultsofEvaluation ................................................................................................................... 7
Speed ......................................................................................................................................... 7
Design/UserIntegration .......................................................................................................... 7
Privacy/Security ........................................................................................................................ 8
Extensions ................................................................................................................................. 8
Category .................................................................................................................................... 8
BestBrowser ............................................................................................................................. 8
Conclusion ..................................................................................................................................... 9
Recommendation ......................................................................................................................... 3




ExecutiveSummary
This Feasibility Study is for the students of the University of North Texas. It looks at four
browsers to determine which one is best for a student attending UNT. We chose to look
at four browsers that are all cross platform. We then researched the speed,
privacy/security, extensions, user integration and design to determine which browser was
the best. Knowing which browser is the best to use at UNT will save you time and give
you a peace of mind when youre working on assignments.
The first section is the introduction that introduces the browsers we chose to study and
why we chose those browsers. The second section is the methods section, which goes into
detail as to how we determined which browser was the best. The third section is the
Results of Evaluation section, which provides our results in the form of charts and
bullets. The fourth section is the conclusion section. This section will provide analysis of
the results as well as compare/contrast the results. The final section is the
Recommendation section, which will simply recommend the best browser to the
reader.


3
Introduction
We chose to study browsers for our feasibility study. Since the study is for students
attending the University of North Texas we decided to do research on browsers we
commonly found in most of the labs offered at UNT as well as any that were available for
both Mac and Windows. Being a student at a university can get hectic so knowing what
browser you can work on in and out of the labs offered on campus is less to worry about.
Wechose cross platform browsers to research since there are macs in some labs as well
as computers with Windows. The choices for browsers were Google Chrome, Firefox,
Safari, Internet Explorer, and Opera. It should be noted that Internet Explorer is no longer
updated for mac and has not been since 2005. This study includes a section for methods
evaluation, results of evaluation, analysis of evaluation and recommendation. The group
hypothesized that Google chrome would be the best browser to use.


5
MethodsofEvaluation
The browsers we chose were:
Google Chrome
Mozilla Firefox
Internet Explorer
Safari
Opera
Each browser was inspected in regards to:
Speed
o Cold Start Time taken for a browser to load upon its first use after reboot
o Non Cold Start Time taken for a browser to use after first use and reboot
o Non cache load use of non-cache RAM in regard to regular RAM
o Reload from cache
o 10 open tabs measures memory used to conduct activity with 10 browsers open
o HTML 5 Compliance How well each browser conforms with the current HTML
5 specification
o CSS3 Compliance test how well each browser conforms with the current CSS3
specification
Design/User Integration
Privacy/Security
Extensions
o Privacy/Security
o Search
o Language
o Education
InformationGathered
Speed
Speed was determined based on a browsers rating in each category; depending on the number of
times a browser was the highest in its category its total was determined.
Design/Interface
The design/interface of a browser was based on a scale from 1 to 5
Privacy/Security
For privacy/security browsers were checked for privacy/security measures such as being able to
report unsafe sites or the option to store passwords
Extensions
A browser received a rating between 1 and 10 based on the number of extensions available in
each category and their usefulness. If there was not at least one useful extension available in two
categories the browser was only given a maximum score of 5.



6 Team Feasibility, Browsers
Our final means of information was opinion based and came from information from a survey we
gave to students. The survey asked 10 questions that gathered information that helped to
determine what students at UNT thought was the best browser. This information is important to
know because the results of the survey could be compared to the study to determine whether
students already use the best browser or not.
SurveyExample
Here are the questions asked in our survey. Depending on the results we could determine which
browser the students at UNT thought was better.
1) What is your Gender?
Male Female

2) What is your Ethnicity?
Caucasian African American Hispanic Other

3) What age group do you identify with?
18 25 26 35 36 45 46 and up

4) What browser do you use most often?
Firefox Chrome Internet E. Safari Opera Other

5) Which browser do you feel has the best design?
Firefox Chrome Internet E. Safari Opera Other

6) Which browser has the most useful Extensions?
Firefox Chrome Internet E. Safari Opera Other

7) Which browser has better User Integration?
Firefox Chrome Internet E. Safari Opera Other

8) Which browser has better security?
Firefox Chrome Internet E. Safari Opera Other

9) Which browser do you feel is the fastest?
Firefox Chrome Internet E. Safari Opera Other

10) Which browsers have you used? (Circle all that apply)
Firefox Chrome Internet E. Safari Opera Other

For our meeting times we met Tuesdays and Thursdays between April 22
nd
and May 9
th
.



7
ResultsofEvaluation
This section will provide you the results of all of our research.
Speed
In terms of Speed Google chrome was the best option and the worst spot was Safari. These test
helped determine which browser was the fastest for different tasks and in general. To check for
speed we tested how fast a browser loaded from reboot as well as how much ram was used
during the use of 10 tabs and how compliant each browser was with HTML 5 and CSS 3.
ColdStart Non-ColdStart NonCacheLoad
1st Firefox 1
st
Internet Explorer 1
st
Opera
2
nd
Internet Explorer 2
nd
Safari 2
nd
Internet Explorer
3
rd
Safari 3
rd
Chrome 3
rd
Chrome
4
th
Chrome 4
th
Firefox 4
th
Safari
5
th
Opera 5
th
Opera 5
th
Firefox

ReloadfromCache 10OpenTabs HTML5Compliance
1
st
Opera 1
st
Firefox 1
st
Chrome
2
nd
Chrome 2
nd
Safari 2
nd
Opera
3
rd
Internet Explorer 3
rd
Internet Explorer 3
rd
Firefox
4
th
Safari 4
th
Opera 4
th
Internet Explorer
5
th
Firefox 5
th
Chrome 5
th
Safari

CSS3Compliance JavaScriptPerformance
1
st
Opera 1
st
Chrome
2
nd
Internet Explorer 2
nd
Opera
3
rd
Chrome 3
rd
Firefox
4
th
Firefox 4
th
Internet Explorer
5
th
Safari 5
th
Safari

Design/UserIntegration
In terms of Design/User Integration Google chrome was the best browser and the worst browser
was Internet Explorer. The look at design and user integration is important in determining which
browser is best for a student to use if they want a browser thats easy to use and allows for better
integration. We looked at different studies on this to determine which browser was the best.
Chrome33

Firefox27

InternetExplorer11(IE11)

Opera20

8 Team Feasibility, Browsers
Privacy/Security
In terms of Privacy/Security Firefox was the best browser and the worst browser was Internet
Explorer. A look at privacy/security is useful so students know which browser is best if they
want to make sure they have the ability for a private secure browsing experience. For
privacy/security we looked at the default means of providing security and privacy to the user in
each browser. The more features a browser had enabled the user to better secure him/herself
while using the browser the higher the browser ranked in terms of privacy/security.
Extensions
In terms of extensions the best browser is Firefox while the worst browser is Internet Explorer.
Checking extensions helps users understand whether or not a browser is better for suited for
specific areas of education or if a browser has useful extensions that will help a student during
their time in college.
Google Chrome: 8
Firefox: 9
Internet Explorer: 5
Safari: 6
Opera: 7

SummaryofResults

Category BestBrowser
Speed Google Chrome
Design/User Integration Google Chrome
Privacy/Security Firefox
Extensions Firefox
Survey Google Chrome

0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
Google Chrome Firefox Internet Explorer Safari Opera
Score
Score
9
Conclusion
From the information we collected we concluded that the best browser was Google
Chrome, however the call was very close in some cases. In the speed category Speed
ratings were pretty much all over the place and that is because many factors contribute to
the speed of a browser. For instance having a fast processor and lots of ram can cause a
computer to run faster overall while the opposite can cause a slow startup time and a slow
browsing experience. Also in terms of speed the service providing internet access can
also determine how fast your browser will run on your computer; if you have an internet
provider with slow internet service your browser will more than likely be slower
regardless of which you choose.
For Design/User Integration a user has to use a browser a fair amount of time to know
how useful the user integration is. Google Chrome does offer many means of integrating
user data and information but if a user only uses Safari they would know nothing of
Google Chromes user integration. In addition the ratings for design were extremely close
because all of the browsers are being updated frequently on the platforms they run on.
In terms of Privacy Security Firefox came in first but this category was also extremely
close. That is because when looking at privacy and security it must be kept in mind that a
user may just install their own form of security. With this in mind it is really hard to
compare privacy and security of browser since the user already has a stable means of
protecting themselves when browsing the web.
Extensions being the final category were just as close as the other categories. The only
browser that was out of link in terms of extensions was internet explorer. All of the other
browsers had either extensions or apps in every category and some browsers such as
opera and Firefox had multiple extensions in one category that were very similar.
Overall the browsers are so close that beyond the survey it was fairly hard to come up
with a best choice.


11

Recommendation
We recommend using Google Chrome at the University of North Texas.