Back on Safari
Ah, Africa . . . I’ve never been (although I do enjoy Ernest Hemingway’s books set in Africa). However, I have been on a trip recently. A diversion from my normal use of Apple’s premiere web-browser, Safari. Over the last several weeks, I’ve been traveling the web via Firefox.
In case you haven’t heard, Firefox is the fast cross-platform web-browser that has been stealing the internet away from M$Explorer’s rotting carcass. It’s so popular that Firefox even received play on ABC. I like that it is open source. I like that it is free. I like its message: “Take back the web.” I like that it has a variety of extensions and add-ons to tweak the functionality. With version 1.0, much of the functionality that has been available to me in Safari was either available as part of Firefox or through extensions. So, I made the switch.
After several weeks of using Firefox, I’m back on Safari. 3 things really bugged the hell out of me: 1. Lack of squiggly-red integrated spellcheck. There’s a spellcheck extension available, but it doesn’t check as you type like Safari does. 2. Lack of Services menu support. This one really bothered me, as I am a regular user of the services menu. I often grab pages into DEVONthink via Command+Shift+) for later offline reading. 3. Links opening in new tabs that failed to load also failed to retain the failed address in the menu-bar for immediate attempts at reloading. This last one finally persuaded me to switch back. I was tired of having to close the empty tab, go back to the originating page, and re-click the link. Very annoying.
I’m keeping the Firefox button in the sidebar of my blog, and it’ll be my browser of choice whenever I’m forced to use a PeeCee (yuck!), as I still support what Firefox is trying to do, but Safari is really the better Mac browser. By and large, they are both great browsers, but Safari has Firefox beat in the details.
And lest you think Safari is lacking in the customization area, here’s a list of a few things to help you trick out Safari like one might trick out Firefox:
- Saft—Saft does lots of things, but what made me decide to drop $10 is its ability to remember all the tabs you have open and relaunch them all on the next launch of Safari. Saft also now supports Growl notification of downloads.
- Safari Stand—this choice piece of freeware may not have much English documentation to speak of, but it does help with bookmark management in Safari.
- Safari Keywords—this little hack adds multiple search engines to the Google search bar via keywords.
- PithHelmet—kills advertisements dead. Nice, free, and totally customizable as an advanced content filter.
Someday, maybe I’ll go back to the fox, but for now, I’m sticking with Safari.
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Plug-in extensions may be Firefox’s killer feature. I generally like Safari’s handling better, but I’m really hooked on Adblock, Link Toolbar, and GMail Notifier for Firefox. (PithHelmet may fill in for Adblock, if I can actually figure out how to use it.) But I expect more must-have fox extensions to come out… *Sigh*
Yes, I agree. The extensions are really cool. However, there are people actively hacking away at Safari as well, so in a sense, it is extension-able (is that a word?). I just wish Firefox in some way managed to fix the three gripes I listed in the article.
I too agree that Safari works better (and faster) for most tasks, but I keep Firefox around for a few reasons, including GMail Notifier (mentioned in Ian’s comments), which I’ve come to depend on, the customizable search bar (choosing a quick search of A9, eBay, Amazon, Dictionary.com, IMDB, etc., all from one search box is quite nice) and the Find As You Type feature, which is just really slick and handy.
Firefox is better than Internet Explorer, but I don’t see how it’s as wonderful as everyone says. I like Safari just fine. But maybe I’m just an Apple purist and like to use the Apple apps whenever possible.
I’m addicted to using firefox’s ability to accept strings in the URL bar to go to the I’m Feeling Lucky result. I’m too lazy to type in .com or .org in any other browser now.
I also like the dictionary ‘dict’ thing
I’m not sure if either renders faster, but I DO like how firefox displays AS it renders. Safari likes to load it all then display it all at once. Sort of reminds me of Netscape Navigator
Great Article.
However you forgot THE best extension for Safari. The one that decided me to switch back to Safar from FireFox: AcidSearch
Available for FREE here http://www.pozytron.com/acidsearch
Give it a go
For me the dealkiller with Firefox is the lack of keychain support. I’m a keychain addict… I have hundreds of keychain entries for websites etc, and I’ll be damned if I’ll type all that crap in again to Firefox’s proprietary and uncertainly protected Password vault. Why bother with a proprietary system when apple has such a nice system-wide built-in? Other than that, it seems pretty nice and is very compatible with all the sites I tried it on.
I love Safari better, but not because it is an Apple App…I was hooked on Camino before (which was called something else similar I can’t remember now…Casino? Carlito? something like that…) It’s because Safari feels like a frame for the Web to me, unlike any other browser. Apple has made a frame, a neutral grey (brushed aluminum) color, with the basic navigation I need to get around…and nothing else comes close in its intuitive simplicity. If it did, I would gladly switch back to it. And I paid my $30 for OmniWeb 4.0, so I know what a good broser is! LOL
Hey, Brian, thanks. Acidsearch looks cool. I just wanted to note that Saft includes the ability ot add search engines to the search bar (Under Safari Preferences—>Saft—>Shortcuts) and combined with SafariKeywords, I can fully customize my Safari search experience. I’d add Acidsearch to the mix, just to give it a whirl, but that just might freak Safari out. I see the possibility for some odd sort of conflict. What in your opinion puts Acidsearch ahead of the others?
Brian, I agree. Find as you type is one of the coolest features of Firefox (as well as the ability so search within the current page). As for the Gmail notification, have you seen gcount?
http://www.ocf.berkeley.edu/~natan/gcount/
Hi CK,
I think Acidsearch has an edge because:
A) it’s free
B) you can add search engines in the Google Bar. I may have done this wrong but although I could add Wikipedia.org to Daft I could only call it via the address bar using wiki <search>. It wouldn’t list in the search engine list.
Also, Daft has in my opinion still a few bugs. I.e when you have many pages loaded in different tabs and you set Safari to full screen, some of the tabs will go blank, others will reload. Very odd and very frustrating.
As you said I think DAFT+Acidsearch is an odd mix.
Right now the most useful function is the additional search engines (using wikipedia, dictionary.com etc.).
Daft still has a few bugs. If they can sort it out I will consider dropping some cash to support the author.
Anybody else feel the way I do?
I was having problems getting Safari to load pages consistently (most pages require me to try twice to load). I tried Foxfire and had a good experience, but it had the same page loading issue that I was having with Safari. However, Foxfire seemed faster. I would have stayed with Foxfire except for the lack of Services and Keychain support.
BTW, if anyone has any clues regarding my page loading issue, I’d welcome their input.
Hey, tombu,
Page-loading issue is an OS X wide problem on certain systems. It has to do with DNS resolution in Panther. See here for more information and some possible solutions:
http://www.macosxhints.com/article.php?story=2004110517042638&query=DNS
Okay, C.K., so once I’ve tweaked Safari with your recommendations, I’m down to just one edge of Firefox over Safari (i.e., Find As You Type)! Thanks for the tips! In general, Safari is faster and prettier, so I like using it for that reason. I have a feeling I’ll be spending more time on Safari in the near future.
One quick question, though: perhaps I’m just missing something in your instructions, but I can’t find that handy Safari preference to customize the Search box?
Brian,
The search box customization is through SafariKeywords, whose interface is available via in the OS X System Preferences, rather than through Safari’s prefs.
Also, Saft has a Under Saft’s preference pane there is a “shortcuts” option where you can add more search engines to the search bar.