Today’s big announcement from Apple is that they’ve released a beta version of Safari 4 for free download (Windows/Mac). The browser touts itself as being the fastest — even faster than Chrome — and features a couple of UI tweaks and improvements over Sarafi 3.
First off, I’m a dedicated Firefox user. In terms of extendability, there simply isn’t a browser out at the moment that can match the plethora of plugins and add-ons available for Firefox. With that said, I do use Safari and Firefox side by side almost every day and I was more than eager to check out Safari 4 beta to see if it would make me reconsider my browser loyalties.
I’ve been using it since early this morning and there are just a few things I’d like to say about the new browser.
TABS: Something about the new tabs at the top doesn’t quite sit well with me. When Chrome came out with this UI enhancement, I was all for it and it seemed almost natural that they would be there. But somehow, Safari 4 doesn’t quite make this jump natural to the user. I have a feeling it has something to do with the fact that the tabs stretch the ENTIRE LENGTH of the top bar, even if there’s only a couple of tabs open. And if it isn’t this, then it’s probably the subtle color differences between the tabs and the browser window. And if it’s not this either, then it’s got to be because there’s so much CRAP between the content window and the browser tabs in Safari, whereas Chrome just keeps in simple.
Cover Flow: Nice for about 30 seconds. And then pretty useless after that. If I’m going through my history, it’s because I want to find a specific site with specific content — and I want to be able to do that quickly. Cover Flow is not a quick way to view browser history. Sure, it’s a nice way, but it isn’t fast. A list view is more effective and will get me the results I want in a quicker fashion. As far as I’m concerned, this Cover Flow feature is just a visual gimmick for those who are bored.
Smart Address Field: Not even close to being as good as Firefox’s Smart Location Bar.
And as far as the browser being fast, it certainly is, but it doesn’t beat Chrome in real-life tests and rendering.
OH! And probably the best thing about Safari 4 is that Apple finally decided to use CTRL+TAB to switch between tabs. Thank goodness. The previous keyboard shortcut was stupid.
