Safari 4? It’s ok, but it’s extensions that get me going

I’m a web guy so I was reflexively excited about the news that Safari 4 beta was available for download. So I downloaded it, got a little annoyed that I had to restart my computer to finish the install. (Restart my computer to install a browser? Did I travel to the 90’s??) I was surprised that it simply upgraded my Safari instead of working more like WebKit which sat next to Safari, but I’m ok with it.

Finally I started it up. The frequently visited thumbnails was pretty neat once they came in and then I started browsing the web. And guess what? The web pretty much looked and worked exactly as it does in Firefox or Safari 3. I surfed the interwaves some, tried a comparison of such javascript bits as Gmail and cursebird.com. Maybe it was faster? But it turns out it doesn’t seem to do anything to increase my download speed, so mostly if it was faster it was indistinguishable to me. Then I got bored and went back to Firefox.

This is not to say that speed increases in the javascript engine isn’t awesome – it is and it is important that it continues to improve so we can do better and cooler things. And I have a double standard here, because, if this user experience was exactly the user experience that IE8 was providing I would be jumping out of my skin happy – mostly because of its standards compliance and the world of happiness that would descend on web devs everywhere. But for my surfing habits now the incremental improvement in Javascript performance pretty much isn’t noticeable and Firefox is already pretty standards compliant so web sites look the same. I suppose I’m a jaded web guy now.

Coverflow? Honestly, I dislike coverflow. Thus far I’ve never, ever wanted to use it as an interface to browse anything. Tabs in the titlebar? Pretty weird… really weird and conserving vertical space hasn’t been much of concern for me since the late 90’s. I’ve got big monitors everywhere. Eh. Until something radical happens (hey, full history search actually was exciting when Firefox released their Awesome Bar), to me browsers are just the plumbing. I’m glad they did it and are experimenting with stuff, but nothing they’ve put in here gets my motors running.

What Safari continues to lack is the big extension library that Firefox has. It doesn’t really push extensions as a first class feature and to me that’s a huge mistake. This is where all the excitement is happening – user generated features (grand and small) that extend the browser in every conceivable way. Things that would be inappropriate to put in the browser itself, but are perfectly awesome as 3rd party bits.

For me what defines my Firefox experience are things like Web Developer, Tamper Data, Firebug, Weave and even Ubiquity. That there is a Mozilla Labs is fantastic with some really cool projects boiling and bubbling up in there.

This is where Apple needs to go – it needs to start really pushing extensions and reaching out to developers to get them in on it. It’s there and they’ve got all the docs ready for developers, but still there’s nothing in the browser to find new extensions. Like how Firefox has a whole extension managing control panel with auto-upgrades and everything. Apple should make an app store for Safari extensions (desktop and mobile!) with a one stop shop (in the browser, not iTunes) to find, install and manage these things. Because it is a non-starter for me to switch without the functionality that I have become accustomed to in Firefox. An incremental speed boost and useless eye candy is simply not enough for the tradeoff.

Have you tried Safari 4 for OSX or Windows? What do you normally use and what do you think of it?

felix

Huh, that's interesting! I think I did remember seeing somewhere that there are actually hidden preferences that can get some of the old behaviour back - like taking the tabas out of the title bar - if you search around tuaw or one of the apple sites, you'll see. Or you could jump ship to the one true browser, Firefox. :)
xversusy

Felix, i've been using the safari beta for a week now and i gotta say, i'm not jumping around in joy. i'm a fulltime safari user...just love it. there's something about the layout and the tab system that i just love. that being said, the tab system in this new version is kind of bunk, if you ask me. it shows up on top of the window and the itsy bitsy flaw i found with that is that you can't simply tap the tab and it opens. you have to touch the way corner of it (top right corner). Now, in some instances, touching the middle sometimes works. i'm sure these are little things someone somewhere has also noticed. but here the major thing with me...they are trying to make this look and feel a little bit like firefox to me. safari was king with this guy (insert picture of me with thumbs pointing at myself) because it was safari - had it's own look and feel. now, it's leaning more in the direction of firefox....come on safari, snap back to it.
felix

Robb, innerestin, it's funny because I had the opposite experience, I really hated Safari's UI. :) I don't know - I just dislike their love of reusing the same space for lots of stuff. The url text area combined with the status bar drives me insane. But even worse was the combo stop/reload button, especially right next to the bookmark button where stop is an X an bookmark is a + - I constantly would just hit the wrong one because they were so close in space and iconography. They extend that now with their tabs in the title bar business - although I think I'm more ok with that, might possibly even like it... not sure. They bug me in the sense that the hot area for dragging tabs is tiny now - the rest of it used for dragging the title bar traditionally. It's like they're going out of their way to optimize for small screens - but those small screens don't exist anymore. Maybe if they come up with a netbook, but thus far don't seem to have.

The only major UI win I see in Safari is their advanced tab handling - where you can drag tabs off the window and it opens a new browser. I'm definitely not a UI nerd, although I likes my UI easy to use. It's also possible I'm just use to FF and fear change. :)
robb.

since the web is my OS for the most part, and I'm a UI nerd (who thinks that even OSX is not anywhere as good as it should be) extensions mean little to me. When I used Firefox os OSX I found it a painful thing to deal with it's inconsistencies with the Mac UI. Things that should have been able to drag would not, windows that should have acted in certain ways did not. It didn't look right.

Extensions to me take something that is good and make it better. Firefox didn't pass the basic tests of goodness.

I can see the developer's point of view though -- I'm just glad that I can use a stock safari instance and do what i need to do.
wka

You hit the nail on the head — extensions are the reason I stay with Firefox. Sure, I'll give Safari 4 a few days, but I strongly suspect I'll be back to FF afterward. Extensions are the major reason I left Camino for Firefox several years back.

(My favorite extension recently: Autopager, which is a great time saver; also useful: Mr. Uptime, to automatically re-check sites that are down and alert you when they are back up.)
felix

Huh, I've heard a little bit that the Safari beta isn't overly stable,
hopefully when it's released it'll be solid. Glad I'm not the only one
sort of blase about this whole thing. Apple needs to get busy with
that "app store" for Safari extensions! :)
ronin

Been using Safari 4 on my work PC and it's rather nice and speedy. But like you I like my FF extensions. Plus Safari seems to cause some across the board semi-freezing issues that pop up intermittently which is pretty annoying. Dunno if that's because it's beta or what. But it's back to FF for me.

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