gistfile1.txt

<?php

$start = microtime();

// create curl resource 
$ch = curl_init(); 

// set url 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_URL, "www.google.com"); 

// return the transfer as a string 
curl_setopt($ch, CURLOPT_RETURNTRANSFER, 1); 

// $output contains the output string 
$output = curl_exec($ch); 

// close curl resource to free up system resources 
curl_close($ch);      

$stop = microtime();

echo "curl: " . ($stop - $start) . " ms\n";

// ============================================

$start = microtime();

shell_exec("curl -s www.google.com");

$stop = microtime();

echo "shell_exec: " . ($stop - $start) . " ms\n";

?>