Lexifind is fast, but if you want to make it faster, try visiting Lexifind using Google Chrome as your browser. In our experience while testing Lexifind, Google™ Chrome was the browser with the fastest performance, many times faster than the slowest browser we tested. We've also noticed that Chrome starts up very quickly, and can run a large number of simultaneous pages without bogging down the computer on which it is running. There's also more room in the Chrome client area for Lexifind's content, because it doesn't force a bunch of big toolbars and menus onto the top of the page.

But don't take our word for it; trying Chrome takes only a few short seconds. If you don't like it, send us a nasty note!

Chrome Frame Perks Up Internet Explorer

If you are presently using Internet Explorer 6, 7 or 8 and running Windows XP, Vista or 7, then if you don't want to switch to a faster browser like Chrome, the next best thing might be to install the Google Chrome Frame Add-on for Internet Explorer. This is like a shot of B vitamins for your browser; it makes it run Lexifind much, much faster overall. This supplies the performance of an advanced browser like Google Chrome, while at the same time allowing you to keep all of your Favorites without having to import them into another browser.

Note, however, that this is a "developer preview" of Chrome Frame, and so it may exhibit a few quirks. In our limited experience, though, it has been stable and helpful, with only minor issues, which is why we are linking to it here. Also, Chrome Frame is designed so that your Internet Explorer browser should behave the same as before except on a site like Lexifind that is specifically set up to take advantage of Chrome Frame. If you install Chrome Frame and end up not liking it, you can disable it from the Manage Add-ons Internet Explorer dialog, or uninstall it completely from the Windows Control Panel.

If you are nonetheless concerned about the possibility of problems with Chrome Frame, don't install it. In that case, we suggest that you consider installing the Chrome browser itself (as described in the previous section).

To see if your browser and operating system are qualified to run the Chrome Frame add-on, just scroll up to the Word Lists column and if you can run Chrome Frame, and don't have it yet, there will be a link there from which you can install it. It only takes a few clicks of the mouse to approve running the installer, and the speed improvements are dramatic.

If you don't see the link, but you still think that you ought to be able to install Chrome Frame, you can go directly to Google's Chrome Frame Web page at http://www.google.com/chromeframe and attempt to install it from there. Remember to refresh www.lexifind.com in your browser after the installer has completely finished, in order to activate Chrome Frame in your browser.

Really old PCs

If you're running a very old PC with an operating system prior to Windows XP, like Windows 2000, then, if you haven't already done so, your best bet is to click here to install the Firefox browser, because Chrome is not available for such older systems. Internet Explorer 6, in particular, on such an old operating system, has difficulty in running a modern Web site like Lexifind that makes extensive use of Javascript, so you really need a fast browser like Firefox to offset the deficiencies of such an older computer.

Apple Safari

If you're running an Apple computer, the supplied Safari browser is an excellent choice. Even on the PC, Safari is generally faster than anything but Chrome.

Other Factors

Other factors that can affect performance are:

• The speed of your Internet connection. This mainly affects the loading of word lists, and then only the first time you load a list. With a high speed Internet connection, loading a word list the first time should take only a few seconds, but if you have one of the slowest connections, such as a dial-up line, the first time you load a given word list could take on the order of 3 minutes. However, the word lists you load are cached by your browser, so the next time you visit Lexifind, that same list that took a long time to load the first time should be available instantly, even if you haven't used the site for several days.
• The speed of your computer. Generally, the faster your computer is, the faster Lexifind will run.

When 100,000 Words is Not Enough

On an average computer, most searches don't really strain Lexifind's capabilities, but if you enter a pattern that returns, say, all of the 267,751 words of the SOWPODS list, and you do that kind of thing a lot, improving your performance could give you a better experience. We don't limit you in Lexifind; you can enter pretty much as many letters and blanks as you like, and can make requests that end up with the full number of words in the word list if that is what you ask for (try entering #* in the Board Area: field of the Find Words column to see this). So, if you find that you're using Lexifind a lot to retrieve things like the list of all words that have all five vowels in order without repetition (try entering [^AEIOU]*A[^AEIOU]*E[^AEIOU]*I[^AEIOU]*O[^AEIOU]*U[^AEIOU]* in the Board Area: field of Find Words to see this), then you might want to look into some of the approaches described on this page.