I have no personal experience, but this guy does:
VARCHAR vs. TEXT - some performance numbers
Quick answer: varchar was much faster.
- , . - - varchar (255 ), 255 - char . , .
:
tmp SELECT, - MEMORY, RAM-RAM, , . ( - MyISAM.) TEXT BLOB MEMORY, . ( MEMORY.)
2 - , , .
MyISAM TEXT BLOB 'inline'. ( /table scan), paddies '- I/O. inline blob .
InnoDB 767 TEXT BLOB inline, . , .
- (Maria? Falcon? InnoDB ?) TEXT BLOB . VARCHAR. (, ); VARCHAR (, / ).