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.

Opera has entered the Adobe Flash vs HTML5 debate, siding with Apple stating that “flash as a video container makes very little sense”.

Phillip Grønvold, Product Analyst at Opera gave an interview with TechRadar this week and shared his thoughts on the debate.

“Today’s internet content is dependant on Flash, if you remove Flash you do not have today’s internet. We are trying to give the best internet experience for our users therefore we need Flash – there is no way to beat around that bush.”

“But at Opera we say that the future of the web is open web standards and Flash is not an open web standards technology” continued Grønvold.

Grønvold believes that Adobe will need to change, and embrace HTML5 technologies or face more embracing war-of-words like we have seen between Adobe and Apple’s Steve Jobs.

For more details be sure to read the full interview at TechRadar.

Microsoft has made available a second release of its Internet Explorer 9 platform preview, with early results showcasing many improvements in the browser over the first platform preview that was released in March 2010.

“Today’s release builds on the first Platform Preview, delivering improvements to IE9’s performance, support for standards, and hardware acceleration of HTML5.  We’ve also updated the test drive site with a new set of developer samples to show what developers can do with GPU-powered HTML5. As part of our commitment to enabling developers to use the Same Markup – the same HTML, CSS, and script – on the web, we have contributed many new tests to the W3C for HTML5, as well as CSS3 Media Queries and DOM. The Developer Tools in this preview include some new features to make finding and fixing markup issues easier” wrote Internet Explorer’s General Manager Dean Hachamovitch.

Microsoft testing shows the browser is also slightly faster in SunSpider JavaScript benchmark test then the previous preview release, with the browser still being faster than Firefox 3.6 and Firefox.Next builds.

The release come days after figures show that Internet Explorer’s market share has dropped below the 60% mark for the first time since late 1998.

Windows users wanting to test Internet Explorer 9 Platform Preview #2 can download the browser from ietestdrive.com.

Google has pushed out a new version of Chrome 5 to beta testers which is between 30% and 35% faster than previous beta releases in the V8 and SunSpider benchmark tests.

Early results suggest that Google Chrome 5 beta is now faster than Opera 10.5x, taking back the fastest browser crown.

Other new features in Google Chrome 5.0.375.29 include HTML5 Features; Geolocation, App Cache, web sockets, file drag-and-drop along with Integrated Flash Player Plugin and Preferences synchronisation.

Along with the release, the Chrome team have created a video to show you just how fast the browser is, in a very creative and entertaining way.

Google Chrome 5 beta can be downloaded for Windows, Mac and Linux.

A video of the showing the making of the Google Chrome Speed Test video can be seen after the break.

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Opera Mini Project Manager Marianne Spilling has posted an article on why iPhone users should ditch the phones included Safari browser and switch to Opera Mini.

Along with the usual list of reasons including faster browsing speeds, Spilling goes on benchmark the browser against Safari on several popular sites with the phone in 2G (EDGE), 3G, and WiFi modes.

The difference was huge, with one example Facebook taking 8.8 seconds to load in Opera Mini in 2G mode, compared to 68.2 seconds in Safari. The difference was far less in 3G and WiFi modes, but Opera Mini still came out on top on all occasions.

The faster speed of Opera Mini on iPhone is attributed to Opera’s Turbo  technology, which pushes all data through Opera’s servers and compresses it before sending the webpage to a browsers iPhone.

Full benchmarks can be seen in Spillings article, while Opera Mini for iPhone can be downloaded for free from Apple’s App store.

Web browser market share results are now available for April 2010 thanks to Market Share by Net Applications.

Internet Explorer continued to loose share, dropping below 60%, from 60.65% in March to 59.95% in April. This is the first time Internet Explorer’s market share has dropped below 60% since late 1998.

Firefox was up slightly in April, from 24.52% to 24.59%, while Chrome continued to surge up from 6.31% to 6.73%. At it’s current rate, Google Chrome will have a 10% share by the end of 2010.

Safari also gained share in April, jumping from 4.65% to 4.72%, while Opera was down slightly from 2.37% to 2.30%.

Full results can be read in the April 2010 Browser Market Share report.

Along with the customisable tab bar, Firefox 4 also looks set to gain a new add-on manager, which is currently receiving a major overhaul.

The new add-on manager works in a browser tab, removing the need for a separate window completely. Along with the standard options for managing extensions, themes, and plugins is the ability to manage both installed languages and search engines.

Currently it is still very much a work in progress, with not all functions working as intended, with  icons and the interface still not final. Other features are still yet to be included, such as silent extension updates.

The new add-on manager is expected to start appearing in nightly builds of Firefox 4 soon.

Latest nightly builds of Firefox include a new customisable tab bar in the browser.

New builds allow buttons in tabs to be removed, saving valuable screen real estate for heavy tab users.

Previously this has been possible with third party add-ons, or by modifying the browsers own CSS files.

The tabs in this build also appear to be more rounded, as has been apparent in early interface mock ups for Firefox 4.

This is only the start of changes, with tab animations and aero glass still on their way for the upcoming browser.

Eager testers can view the new tab bar in action by downloading the latest nightly builds from the Mozilla FTP server.

Less than 3 days after the release of Opera 10.52 for Windows and Mac, Opera has released Opera 10.53.

The update addresses a security issue discovered in Windows versions.

“The vulnerability is caused due to an error when continuously modifying document content on a web page e.g. using document.write(). This may result in a function call using uninitialised memory when a user visits a specially crafted web page” detailed Secunia Advisory SA39590.

The update also fixes a potential freeze bug when using Google Maps for both Windows and Mac versions.

Opera 10.53 will be pushed out to Windows and Mac users over the next day, while new users can downloaded the browser from the Opera website.

Google Chrome 4.1.249.1064 has been released to the stable channel for Windows users.

The update includes two bug fixes, one of which solves a bug that causes slow JavaScript performance.

Three security holes have also been closed, all of which were rated as high.

A more detailed description of each of these issues can be found in the change log.

Windows users will automatically receive the update, while new users can download Chrome from the Google Chrome website.