Most major browsers are focusing on speed gain via hardware acceleration. But if the latest Firefox 4 with Jaegermonkey is anything to go by, there is a lot of room for improvement even in terms of JavaScript support. The Jaegermonkey project was launched earlier this year and you can view the first preview version now.
In benchmarking tests done on the new Jaegermonkey version of the Firefox, the speed improvements are quite evident. It easily outperforms the newest Firefox 4 beta on both SunSpider and V8 benchmarks. But then again, Google Chrome is still the fastest on both these benchmarks. Therefore, the Jaegermonkey addition has done little in terms of how Firefox fares against Chrome.
But things are not that simple because, benchmark tests do not reflect how fast a browser will run when you use it in person, in the real scenario. This is why, it needs to be clarified here that the Jaegermonkey Firefox is a real improvement on whichever version you may have been using till now.
Moreover, despite Chrome achieving some staggering numbers in the benchmark test, you will barely notice much of a difference in speed between the Chrome and the new Firefox while using both in real life.
The Jaegermonkey team has put in a lot of work into beefing up the Firefox browser, including reverse engineering and endless debugging, which is a standard procedure before any browser upgrade can be previewed. Websites, which require enhanced Java support, should run faster on your system with the Jaegermonkey. The developers even claim that by the time it is ready for the final release even greater speeds will be achieved!
With improved JavaScript support on the browser and other advancements such as hardware acceleration and a better interface, the Firefox 4 is looking lean, mean and hungry for success. When it finally launches this fall, Chrome needs to watch out! 
