TODAY'S CHALLENGING, feature-rich Web sites re¬quire a gutsy browser that can save you time with better performance, enhance your experience with new tools, and help protect your PC via stepped-up security.

Recognizing the opportu¬nity, Apple, Microsoft, and Mozilla each want their latest product to be your browser of choice. I ran Apple's Safari 3.1, Mozilla's Firefox 3 (the feature-complete beta 5 release), and Microsoft's In¬ternet Explorer 8 (still in an early beta version) through a series of tests-and com¬pared their features-to see which one is the best bet.

How They Stack Up My pick is Firefox 3, the most customizable of the three. If a polished package that doesn't need a lot of tweaking suits you, Safari might be the right choice; just be aware of its minor security issues. Microsoft's IE 8 is too embryonic to judge, but its new touches so far aren't compelling. (Want more choices to consider? See "Two Worthy Alternatives" on page 16.) I put the Big Three browsers through tests of performance and memory use.

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In the performance test, I ran clean versions of each browser (that is, copies with no add-ons or plug-ins) through the SunSpider JavaScript benchmark site, which measures how fast a browser processes J ava¬Script-heavy Web 2.0 pages. Webkit.org provides both the standard test and the open-source core for Safari and other browsers, but its test remains applicable to all browsers.

Safari 3.1 completed the test in just over 4 sec¬onds-significantly faster than its current competi¬tors, Firefox 2 and Internet Explorer 7. Meanwhile, Firefox 3 also rocked the SunSpider benchmark, finishing in just 3.61 seconds. IE 8's 10.2-second time on the test is weak in comparison, but the browser is still in early beta form. And even so, its mark is far better than IE 7's 50 seconds.