Neowin has discovered that this weeks Google Chrome speed test videos were faked, which was later confirmed by Google.
Scepticism came when one attentive Neowin user noticed that during the first potato test, the web page was loaded from the local machine, rather than over the Internet as the video would have you believe.
“For the Chrome Browser vs. Potato film, we used a version of the web page allrecipes.com that is accessible when logged in. About four hours into the Potato Gun shoot we decided to use a locally loaded version of the web page to enable more precise synchronization with the potato gun. We finally got the shot we were hoping for after 51 takes” responded Google.
Google did note however that the Sound vs Chrome video was filmed for real.
“For Chrome Browser vs. Sound, we loaded an artist page from Pandora.com, a streaming internet radio service directly off the web on a 15Mbps internet connection.”
According to Google the aim of the video was to show the true rendering speed of the Chrome browser, which involved removing as many variables as possible to get an accurate result.
Tiago Sá wrote on May 9, 2010 at 2:46 am
It’s a joke. Nobody really cars about rendering speed, anyway. The sole reason people use chrome is because of its looks (which I dislike, personally) and its snappy animations. And, of course, its massive marketing campaign, but that’s completely acceptable (the other reasons are too).
Google should adapt a kawaii strategy, because that’s what they’re selling.