It’s safe to say that Safari has come a long way since it’s version 1.0 release back in 2003. To get some perspective on that point in time: Firefox didn’t exist yet, Macs at the time (running Jaguar) came bundled with the atrocious Internet Explorer 5, and one of the only viable alternatives, Omniweb, used a completely custom rendering engine. This week marked the beta release of the fourth iteration of Apple’s browser, and after using it as my primary vehicle to traverse the internet, here’s the raw feed.
The biggest features of Safari 4 that Apple is championing are as follows: an updated interface, speed enhancements (particularly to the Javascript rendering engine), and Coverflow integration for a visual take on your browsing history and bookmarks.
For general use and day-to-day browsing I use Safari because it’s fast and integrates seamlessly into OS X. On the other hand, the web developer in me loves the extensibility of Firefox using it’s plugin architecture, so for all of my projects Firefox runs the show. Firefox is great for the functionality it extends me but I find it a bit sluggish on my machine (which is no slouch, either). It locks up when loading pages that are heavy with either Flash or Javascript, which continually leads me back to Safari. When I heard about the further speed improvements that Apple was boasting in this newest beta, I didn’t think it was possible. After 3 days, I’m a believer.
A Speed Explosion: ‘Nitro’
I always take Apple’s claims with a grain of salt. That’s not to say that they’re lying, but I’ve found they do have a slight tendency to stretch the truth. Here’s an excerpt from their Safari 4 performance page:
Safari executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and more than 3 times faster than Firefox 3 based on performance in leading industry benchmark tests: iBench and SunSpider.
In addition to superior JavaScript performance, Safari offers top-flight HTML performance — the best on any platform — loading pages 3 times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and almost 3 times faster than Firefox 3.
I don’t run benchmarking tests and really have no desire to. I base my speed judgements on actual usage and by all measures, this browser is fast. My test basically involved browsing to a few of my usual haunts: Digg, Vimeo, Youtube, this site, etc on Safari 3 and then installing the Safari 4 beta and revisiting. Everything just felt snappier and more responsive.
A Big Talking Point: The Interface
Apple seemed to have borrowed one or two things from the Google school of browser design for this latest version. Two interface elements in particular stand out: Tabs on the top, and “Top Sites”. We’ll cover them in that order.
Apple has turned the title bar of their browser into the tabs area, something which many will undoubtedly have to get used to. Comparisons have been drawn to Google’s Chrome browser, which is only available on Windows at the time of this writing. Here’s a picture for your review:
Safari on top, Chrome on the bottom in blue
I think Chrome has the slight edge here only for a few reasons: I like the fixed width tabs better than Safari’s auto-width tabs which resize to span the length of the title bar. Also, in Chrome the URL field doubles as the search bar, which is not just a wonderful bit of minimalism, but also serves to keep the interface nice and clean.
Another addition to the Safari feature list is Top Sites, which displays a list of live thumbnails of the sites you visit most. Again, this is a feature that Chrome introduced when it first launched, but Apple decided to be a bit more ostentatious and add a bit of perspective to their list.
In all fairness, both “tabs on top” and “Top Sites” had been in the Opera web browser for quite a while. Though not quite as sophisticated as Top Sites or Chrome’s Most Visited, Opera’s Speed Dial served as a handy way to reach your most visited pages.
The final interface change is 100% Apple: Coverflow for browsing your History and Bookmarks. I’m in the crowd that uses Coverflow to show off OS X to impressionable friends and family members, but not for much else. The implementation in Safari is just another place for me to ignore it entirely, though I do think it has practical application in the realm of browsing your history, which are sites that generally aren’t bookmarked and can be more easily recalled by layout/design as opposed to name. I’ll give it an honest try, but I’m not sure how useful it will actually be.
In Summation
Safari 4 is definitely a worthy upgrade in terms of speed and a big stride towards a more minimal browsing experience. The repositioned tabs may take some getting used to, only because we’ve been conditioned to expect tabs under the URL box for so long, but I was back in the swing of things by the end of my first full day of browsing. When you subtract all of the glitzy features that Apple has added, namely Top Sites and Coverflow, what you’re left with is still an incredibly fast and powerful browser. Just what I was looking for.
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