The Official Google Chrome Blog highlights three simple but useful shortcuts for controlling exactly what happens when you click a link in Chrome. Incidentally, they also work exactly the same in Firefox, so whichever you prefer, read on for the refresher.

Opera 10 final is out, Chrome just turned one year old, and Firefox 3.5 has settled into stability. It's time once again to break out the timers and speed test today's web browsers.

Like all our previous speed tests, this one is unscientific, but thorough. We install the most current versions of each browser being tested—in this case, Opera 10, Chrome's development channel 4.0 version, and the final Firefox 3.5 with security fixes—in a system with a 2.0 GHz Intel Centrino Duo processor and 2GB of RAM, running Windows XP.

We use Rob Keir's tiny timer app to time each browser in the common ways that leave users waiting: a "cold start" right after boot, a "warm start" after already having run once, and waiting on eight tabs to load up. We run each test three times and average the results, tossing out any obvious irregularities.

The browser speed wars continue, and this time Chrome's throwing down the gauntlet once again. According to CNET, the latest developer build of Chrome outpaces Firefox 3.1 beta in the SunSpider Speed test, while Safari and IE 8 continue to lag behind. Be sure to check our most recent browser speed tests for a fuller picture of performance differences. UPDATE: Apparently the reviewer at CNET hadn't enabled TraceMonkey, the new JavaScript engine that's not yet enabled by default in the 3.1 Beta release. Learn how to enable TraceMonkey and more about Firefox 3.1 Beta with our first look.