"The web is evolving and so should the JavaScript benchmarks that measure its performance," says the Google blog announcing Octane, a new JavaScript benchmark. Due to this, Google has ditched the traditional method of making a benchmark--artificial tests designed to test one feature at a time--and opted to use common web apps and JavaScript libraries.

Since they are based on web apps that are used everyday, this real world scenario allows the benchmark's numbers to be better. Google claims that "a high score in the new benchmarks directly translates to better and smoother performance in similar web applications" since it is based off of real applications.

Google has provided us with an overview of the tests:

• Box2DWeb runs a JavaScript port of a popular 2D physics engine that is behind many well-known simulations and web games.
• Mandreel puts a JavaScript port of the 3D Bullet Engine to the test with a twist: The original C++ source code for the engine is translated to JavaScript by Onan Games' Mandreel compiler, which is also used in countless web-based games.
• Pdf.js is based on Mozilla's PDF reader and shows how Javascript applications can replace complex native browser plug-ins. It measures how fast the browser decodes a sample PDF document.
• GB Emulator is derived from an open source emulator of a famous game console running a 3D demo.
• CodeLoad measures how quickly a JavaScript engine can bootstrap commonly used JavaScript libraries and start executing code in them. The source for this test is derived from open source libraries (Closure, jQuery).

Furthermore, Google has updated the interface of the V8 benchmark suite, which Octane is derived from, to better show information and to automatically adapt to different sized screens, whether they be on a smartphone, tablet, or desktop computer. Google has also released the code the for the open-source benchmark and it is available on Google Code's website.