URI.parse vs regex

gistfile1.txt

require 'URI'
require 'benchmark'
include Benchmark

urls = %W{
http://www.theverge.com/posts/comment
http://www.thefalcoholic.com/posts/ajax_comments_update/3468659?last_version=128
http://www.polygon.com/game/dead-island-riptide/3635
http://www.arrowheadpride.com/rss2/index.xml
http://www.broadstreethockey.com/ 
}

Benchmark.bm do |b|
  b.report("URI.parse") do
    1000.times do
      urls.each do |url|
        URI.parse(url).host
      end
    end
  end

  # Rubular: http://rubular.com/r/H9bK6iAq67
  b.report("regex") do
    1000.times do
      urls.each do |url|
        url =~ %r!http:\/\/www\..*\.\w{3}(.*)!
      end
    end
  end
end

=begin
      user     system      total        real
URI.parse  0.180000   0.000000   0.180000 (  0.249497)
regex  0.010000   0.000000   0.010000 (  0.011040)
=end