Those of you that have been following this blog for a while know that I have been in a cycle of switching between Firefox and Safari as my primary browser almost regularly. I’ve even gone way of Flock back in the day. However, I have always ended up coming back to Firefox. Firefox is like an ex-girlfriend — bear with me — you know it has some flaws but it’s comfortable and lets you experiment with various add-ons. You know something’s up when restarting Firefox has made it into my daily routine.
I need not mention that Apple released Safari 4 Beta — to much fanfare — yesterday. If you’re interested in a detailed list of what’s new and innovative in this release, check out the lengthy press release or any of these comprehensive reviews:
- AppleInsider: Apple releases public beta of Safari 4 browser
- ArsTechnica: Hands on: Safari 4 beta fast, mixes polish, rough UI edges
- CNET: Safari 4 benchmarked: 42x faster than IE 7, 3.5x faster than Firefox 3
Thoughts
The purpose of this post isn’t to list features or discuss the aesthetics of Safari 4 beta’s features like bookmark/history Cover Flow or the automatically generated Top Sites page that lists your most frequently visited websites. I’m here to impart my thoughts on Safari 4 beta as seen from a developer’s point of view.
Obligatory screenshot of Top Sites in Safari 4 Beta
First, I do have a few general comments to make. I’m not quite sure why everyone is running towards placing tabs at the absolute top of the window. It might be the cool thing to do ever since Opera came on the scene and then Google’s Chrome made it hip, but I am not a fan. It truncates the full website title and it takes more time to mouse over to the top to switch tabs than previously. Although if I recall correctly, Apple did make the tab cycling shortcuts easier to use (Control-Tab goes right, Shift-Control-Tab goes left).
And while I’m on the subject – do you find Cover Flow useful for browsing your web history and bookmarks? I have the majority of my bookmarks on Delicious so I have yet to discover the power of it.
Oh and if you have a multi-touch trackpad on your MacBook, try pinching it like you would an iPhone – Safari 4 beta now zooms just like the iPhone does. Don’t worry if you don’t have such a trackpad, just Command+ or Command- away!
PaulStamatiou.com zoomed all the way out in Safari 4 beta
Aside from Apple’s jabs at Google’s Chrome with the aforementioned usability “features”[sic], Safari 4 beta does tote some impressive bragging rights.
Bragging Rights
Safari 4 beta sports some ridiculous JavaScript execution speeds. If you once thought that Mozilla’s JavaScript-C engine “SpiderMonkey” was impressive, you’re gonna start bouncing off the walls when you take a look at Safari 4′s “Nitro” engine, which runs at the bytecode level. That being said benchmarks show that Safari 4 beta is some 3X faster than Firefox 3. However, Safari 4 beta is only a tad bit faster than the recent Firefox 3.1 beta (which uses the TraceMonkey JS engine with native code compilation – similar to Nitro)… browser wars, what can I say.
I’m more impressed by Safari 4′s support for CSS 3 and HTML 5 (with offline storage! – that’s the databases tool in the Web Inspector) – both of which can be attributed to Safari’s Apple-established, open source rendering engine WebKit.
What I (Kinda) Like
Let me start this by saying I have never been a fan of doing web development in Safari or WebKit; Firebug has always held a special place in my heart. After playing with Safari 4 beta’s new Web Inspector and the updated elements and resources views, I can say that Firebug isn’t so far ahead anymore.
Safari 4′s Web Inspector – Elements View
Safari 4′s Web Inspector – Resources View
Most of what I do with Firebug in Firefox is editing live XHTML and CSS, along with the occasional JS debug and creating watch expressions to see if my JS actually works. Live editing in the Safari 4 Web Inspector is fairly self-explanatory. Tinkering with the DOM and CSS? Double-click their values on the right pane in Elements view to edit them live. Well, that’s how it should be. Simple, mundane tasks like live tweaking CSS properties do not yet work properly in the Safari 4 Web Inspector. As for markup, just double-click the tag you wish to edit in the left pane. Not quite as easy as Firebug — I enjoy the anything-goes “Edit” view and while I’m on the subject of live editing, the Safari “Snippet Editor” is pretty darn useless. How often do I edit completely independent code snippets? Never. I’m always tinkering with some code that ties into the grand scheme of things with elements throughout the page. But I digress..
There’s a lot more to the Web Inspector than what I’ve mentioned, but it’s all the same ol’. Safari 4 isn’t worth my development time until Web Inspector can painlessly do what I would primarily use a development tool like it for (live editing of CSS/XHTML/JS).
Overall
If this were a real review and I were to bestow Safari 4 beta with a Stammy rating, it would come in at around 6.5-7 out of 10 with emphasis on its stability and speed. So what’s Safari 4 good for? Browsing the web, not tweaking it. Let’s not forget that Safari is the king of private browsing mode *wink wink*… well not for long, Firefox 3.1 gets native support for that too.
If you’re using Safari 4 Beta take a look at some of the hidden preferences (OS X only), such as putting the tab bar back where it belongs.
Safari 4 Beta: yay or nay?
{ 27 comments… read them below or add one }
What makes me still unwilling to switch from Firefox to Safari is the inability to force links that open in new windows to open in new tabs. I use Google Reader and the “v” shortcut (open current item in new window) is vital to my workflow but when using it in Safari the link opens in a new window which is a complete deal breaker for me.
To force links that open in new windows to open in new tabs, go to your Terminal and enter:
defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true
Restart Safari and you’re good to go.
Andrew you are my hero! Ever since I’ve switched to Safari its been killing me that I can’t have GMail links open in a new tab. They always open in a new window despite what I set in Preferences. That command line option did the trick!
Chad, what Michael was referring to is what I believe was the same issue as me. I guess Google web apps in Safari have their links always open in new windows regardless. I haven’t used Google Reader but for GMail in Safari it always opened in a new window. Thanks again guys! The switch now for me is complete!
Michael, u can hold the cmd button when clicking on licks to open them up into a new tab.
I think Safari 4 Beta is a bit better in the tweaking department than you give it credit for. CSS tweaking is supported (see my tweet). Also simply the speed makes it work it for me. I was using Firefox 3.1 beta 2, but Safari 4 beta just screams past it in my experience.
So far I like it, if only it would render gmail over https, but then again maybe it’s just me. Although I’ve been having problems loading some other web-based email platforms over https, on both Mac OS X version and Windows version of Safari 4 Beta.
So I would say nay and would be switching back to Firefox.
Thanks for a great review and thoughts on the Safari!
But one thing I do not get is to open the Web Inspector you describe..
Where do you find that?
To get to the Developer tools in the Safari 4 Beta:
Open Preferences > Got to Advanced tab > At the bottom check the “Show Develop Menu In Menu Bar” option > Close preferences.
The developer tools will now be active in the Safari 4 menu in between “Bookmarks” and “Window”.
A definite YAY. It doesn’t change the fact that I still develop with Firefox/Firebug and probably won’t for a while, but Safari 3 was a great browser.
Safari 4 is just making it better. Like you said, more stable, secure and faster. What else do you need?
I don’t care much for the tab, but giving them a try for a week or so.
I actually much prefer the tabs along the title bar. It saves a lot of vertical screen real estate, which is important to me when using the 13″ MacBook. I can still see enough of the titles just fine (I tend not to rely on them too much anyway).
I’ve never used the Web Inspector, only Firebug (I’m also a Firefox switcher), but I think I’ll use it for a while and see how it goes.
Safari 4 is pretty sweet so far, especially for a beta. I’m blown away at the page rendering speed, and Top Sites is good as a web site launcher (though a little buggy at the moment). I miss the progress bar though (hope it comes back in a future release) and Cover Flow for history is pretty useless, IMO; that said, I can see it being useful for certain people.
Perhaps I’m just happy that I’m able to actually use Safari again, since I was affected by the stupid cookies issue (they weren’t ‘remembered’ and couldn’t be removed, etc) for which there was no known solution.
I was skeptical about the utility of coverflow for my bookmarks and browsing history until late yesterday afternoon. I accidentally closed a tab that had been open for a while while browsing Craigslist for housing. I had probably looked at sixty or so pages on Craigslist and for the life of me couldn’t remember what the title of the page was. However, looking at my history in coverflow allowed me to find it quickly because I remembered what images were on the page. I’m sure there are a lot of other cases where we remember the design/layout/contents of a website while struggling to remember its URL or Head tag. Will I use it to browse my bookmarks tab? Definitely not. But I think it has a lot of potential for finding forgotten or lost information in the deep recesses of my bookmarks.
@Paul Tabs at the top – I like that they save a little viewing space. But you’re right Paul, and I didn’t notice it until I read your entry (thanks a lot), it is somewhat annoying that you have to move your mouse that much further to click a tab. That’s pretty nit-picky on my part though.
@Bobby Generally I think coverflow is useless. But the scenario you presented is one of the few where it would be highly useful. Thanks for bringing that up.
oh.. I don’t know that Safari 4 beta is available for download. Gonna try it now :D
I haven’t tried it so far. Normally I wait for couple of weeks before I install it. But I found this while reading about Safari 4. Thought I will post it here :
http://www.9to5mac.com/CSS-Safari-
I love coverflow for History/Bookmark browsing. To me this is a major leap forward in term of usability. The ability to see all the pages you’ve looked at in the last little while provides a significant advantage to previous systems. I can’t tell you how many times I’m looking for something and I find what I’m looking for among a dozen pages. If I need to get back to that page, being able to visually identify it is fantastic.
I’m a pretty die-hard Firefox user though. I’ve got my workflow down there and I don’t really want to switch. I can tell you I hate the tabs-on-top. Obnoxious.
My short look: http://aaroneiche.com/2009/02/26/the-safari-4-beta-some-notes/
Can’t really comment on the Safari Beta, which I have, but don’t use, as I find Firefox SO convenient and easy to use that I stick with it. I will have to explore Safari more, now that I’ve read your article, though
Very interesting article. I’ll have to check out Safari, which I have but seldom use, as I’m a Firefox fan. I used to use Microsoft’s IE, but almost never use it, as Firefox works so much better for me.
For those that don’t like the new tab placement (like me!), they can be moved back to their original position: http://tinyurl.com/originaltabs
Much better !
Though I like the new look (I use Chrome as my main browser) I am still hesitant to switch to Safari 4 because it still – all versions of Safari have this issue – dose not make good use of the tabs feature. Half the time links open in new pages rather than new tabs, and t is very annoying. I am spoiled. I have used Firefox and now Chrome for so long, I cannot stand multiple pages open as i surf around the net.
Great write up, the interface looks a heck of a lot cleaner – more modern. I might actually use the default browser on my mac now.
my thoughts/rant on safari 4 beta http://is.gd/kMmi
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@Caius your server must be getting a beating! You have a mention on http://is.gd/kMmi too.
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Usually I judge life to be too short to be an unpaid beta tester, but paul stamatiou’s review gives a persuasive developer’s perspective on the Safari 4 beta.And about the "3x" or "4x" faster JS claims… Paul points out that this beta is "only a tad bit faster than the recent Firefox 3.1 beta."
This comment was originally posted on Hacker News
Overall I enjoy the Safari 4 beta. It runs much faster and as it mirrors more closely the Chrome interface (which I prefer with the tabs long the top) I’m quite happy with it.I have crashed it a few times, but those usually surrounded Flash interactions and I dutifully reported such incidents.
I wrote a very short review of it on my site: http://www.trickjarrett.com/2009/02/24/my-thoughts-about-saf…;
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@Nmarques vi no Paul Stamatiou http://bit.ly/mXgMz
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Paul has a great review of safari 4 http://is.gd/kMmi
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@xeenon the quote is from here: http://tinyurl.com/aegjje
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