With Google having recently unveiled an early version of a general-purpose browser speed test dubbed `RoboHornet', a few initial tests by Tom's Hardware have revealed that Microsoft's Internet Explorer 10 (IE 10) browser on Windows 8 tops the new speed test.

Since `RoboHornet' chiefly comprises a new set of browser benchmarks which gauge a browser's speed performance with JavaScript, as well as HTML rendering, CSS animations, and DOM (Document Object Model) manipulation, the early tests by Tom's Hardware showed that IE 10 worked out better than other browsers, including Chrome, Safari, Firefox, and Opera.

The `RoboHornet' speed test for browsers is an open source project created by Google's Alex Komoroske; with the participating "stewardship committee members" including representatives from Facebook, SmugMug and Sencha; as well as individuals like Cappuccino framework-developer Tom Robinson.

Noting that the `RoboHornet' benchmark, as of now, is "still in a very early alpha state," Komoroske said that it is required of the participants that they propose and support the most pertinent performance issues, so that the benchmark can be appropriately shaped to effectively define the areas in which browser vendors are likely to invest to have their browsers run faster.

Describing `RoboHornet' as "a living, dynamic benchmark," Komoroske said that the key objective of the speed-test effort is to "use the collective efforts of the Web development community and ultimately get browser vendors to fix real-world performance pain points."