In recent years web browsing has become a rather CPU intensive task. The javascript used for scrolling menus, Flash based ads and other (usually) unnecessary junk running behind the scenes on certain websites, can put your CPU to the test. Of course, whenever your CPU spikes it has to pull more energy which produces more heat which, for laptop users, can drain the battery much quicker than if this stuff was not running.
You can help prevent this by taking advantage of a script blocker, such as Firefox’s NoScript add-on.
SecTheory.com took a notebook PC, a couple of browsers and measured the battery drain on the Top 100 Alexa sites. They then took the worst offenders, that is, the ones that took the most power drain, and blocked script and ads using NoScript and AdBlock Plus. The results were quite significant. On a Dell Inspiron B130 notebook, with a 1.5GHz Celeron M processor and 1 Gig of ram, running fully patched Windows XP SP2, the power consumption when browsing the worst offending sites dropped by 11W, a 20% reduction.
These are pretty impressive results. Granted, it does take a bit of time for your white list to get caught up to where you don’t even notice a script blocker is running, but investing a little time can really impact battery life if you do a lot of browsing… especially on ‘intensive’ sites.
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Very cool idea, Jason, to link energy use to browser settings.
I would remind you that Opera v10 with an auto-Turbo setting, is a GREAT battery-saver, since it compresses transmission 90%, but also blocks flash content. Of course, one click loads the flash item.
Opera’s global (and site) preferences for script handling are one right-click away, as well (and an ad/content blocker).