A new report coming out of Microsoft claims that Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) is on average faster than both Google Chrome 1.0 and Firefox 3.0.5.

The report titled Measuring Browser Performance: Understanding issues in benchmarking and performance analyzes how various parts of the browser and their network components can impact on performance benchmarking.

Contradictory to all other tests, Microsoft claims that IE8 outperforms both Firefox 3.05 and Chrome 1.0, so the results should be taken with a grain of salt.

Of interesting note, IE8 loads mozilla.com faster than Firefox while Firefox loads microsoft.com faster than IE8.

The full 14-page report is available from the Microsoft Download Center.

Mozilla has just released Firefox 3.0.5. The latest version patches 8 security holes, 3 of which are rated as critical.

Two of these attacks allow malicious websites to run code on another website, potentially stealing your personal information. This is done using common cross-site scripting attacks.

Mozilla has also rolled out Firefox 2.0.0.19 with security patches. This will be the last update for Firefox 2.

“Mozilla is not planning any further security and stability updates for Firefox 2, and recommends that you upgrade to Firefox 3 as soon as possible” said Mozilla engineer Samuel Sidler.

Current Firefox users should automatically be updated in the next few days, or can use the links below to download the updates below:

Download Firefox 3.0.5
Download Firefox 2.0.0.19