[1] is not good article, no test, no numbers. [2] neither is this. no info about the test other than the results. just knowing that chrome rendered flash by default at the time of this article, i know its irrelevant. [3] claims 70%...

Anecdotally, Chrome uses dramatically more memory and CPU than Safari for me (note: I typically have 100+ tabs open at once), and gives me somewhere between half and two thirds the battery life, for the same type of use. I have flash turned off for both and most ads blocked via /etc/hosts, so there shouldn’t be anything especially unfair in the results.

Google web apps (gmail, google maps, etc.) seem to be a particular offender.

False. From [2]: "The native Safari made the new Retina machine look good: 13 hours and 18 minutes. Google’s Chrome, on the other hand, forced the laptop to tap out at 9 hours and 45 minutes."