But the speed claims for the browser -- which comes with 120 search engines, all the major media players, a DVD player, and an HTML and WAP editor built in -- have drawn criticism because no one has yet been able to clock it.

Adnan Osmani, a shy but cheerful student at St. Finian's school in this town about 50 miles from Dublin, spent two years coding what he calls his "Xwebs megabrowser" for an annual Irish school science challenge, the Esat BT Young Scientist of the Year competition.