Should You Make The Switch to Safari 3.0?

It's been a week since Steve Jobs announced the release of yet another cross-platform application joining the ranks of iTunes and Quicktime. The company hopes the addition of Safari 3 for Windows will help grow its market share in a web browsing arena dominated by Internet Explorer and Firefox. Unfortunately, Safari 3 was off to a rocky start.

As soon as the beta version became available, one million users around the world downloaded it within 48 hours only to find it was less than ready for prime time. Security experts found serious vulnerabilities that could be used to run malicious code on a computer, among other things. In response, Apple issued its first update fixing some of the flaws reported. I've downloaded the new Safari 3.0.1 for Windows browser, and here's a review of some of the more compelling, and not so compelling features:

Original Browsing Features

Private Browsing: When turned on, this feature does not store any information you type including passwords, search keywords, browsing history, or downloaded items. It could become a problem for parents who like to keep tabs of what their kids are doing online, but for the most part, it's a nice optional security feature to have.

SnapBack option: About time someone thought of this one. A SnapBack is simply a way of marking pages as a preferred destination point. It's so easy to click your way deep within a site, which makes getting back to the main page a real chore if you depend on a back button. By adding SnapBack, Safari 3 allows you to get back to the original search page by clicking an orange icon located on the address bar. You have to add SnapBack (Ctrl-Alt-K) anchor points to a page, otherwise it will take you to the original search page.

Built-in RSS: Anytime you land on a page with an RSS feed, a blue RSS button appears in the address bar. Clicking on it allows you to see a summary of each story, sometimes with pictures (this depends on the website). You can add RSS feeds to the built-in RSS reader by clicking the plus sign icon. Initially, I didn't think adding and viewing RSS feeds to the reader was very intuitive, but after I figured it out it was easy to use. You're going to have to read the Help menu to understand how this feature works.

Draggable Tabs: Although the tabbing system is not as as seamless as Firefox's, I do like the option of dragging tabs outside a browser to open a page in a new window. You can also re-arrange tabs, and open new ones by Ctrl-clicking on links. The tab menu alone is very drab. I had difficulty differentiating between web pages I tabbed.

Should've Stuck To Basics:

Blurry Fonts: I opened IE, Firefox and Safari 3 all at the same time, on the same page, and found that fonts on Safari 3 were difficult to read. I think the fonts are too dark and bold, compared to fonts on other browsers. I checked Safari's default settings under the Appearances tab, and while Safari 3 has three levels of font smoothing, none of them improved readability. Etched-like text on menu, status, tabs, and bookmark was also hard to read, the worst being the text displayed on status bar. Compared to Firefox and Internet Explorer, Safari's text is not easy on the eye.

Window Resizing: Most browsers allow you to resize the browser window from any angle, but Safari 3 resizes the browser window from the bottom-right corner only.

Confusing Icons: Safari's default icons are confusing. Symbols used to describe simple functions like adding bookmark and refreshing page were not very clear. I know this is beta, but the ugly bug icon needs to go away. Other icons can be added to the toolbar menu, although the selection is very limited.

No Default Status Bar: The status bar is very important to me. I personally like to know what URL I'm about to click, especially if I suspect a phishing scam. When I opened Safari 3 for the first time, there was no status bar so I panicked a little. It took me a minute to realize I had to go to the View menu to activate it. I'm sure Apple didn't make it a default to keep the style clean, but why make the user go through that extra step?

Some mouse buttons don't work: Still trying go figure out this one, but the extra buttons on my mouse don't work. I usually use these extra buttons to go back or forward, but they seem to be deactivated in Safari 3.

No History drop down: The search bar doesn't keep a list of URLs visited recently at all. Most browsers have a drop down menu so you can see a list of pages you've visited recently, which is helpful if you visit the same pages every day.

Internet Explorer and Firefox are Safari's main competitors, so Apple's going to have to come up with a better feature set that would compel loyal fans to make the switch, because this version is not irresistible enough. I had way too many complaints to make the switch. Is it ready for prime time? I don't think so. The browser is in BETA which means Apple still needs to work out a few kinks. I don't think you should ditch your current browser just yet. Wait until Apple releases its final version in October, and hopefully by that time, the browser will already have a more stable environment. Overall, I think Safari 3 still has a long way to go before becoming the "world's best browser."

It's BETA, We Know, But What's With The Claims?

Apple may be a little too excited about its spanking new Safari 3 for Windows browser, but maybe it should've been a bit more humble since this product is still basically in Beta, no? Here's what they claim on their website:

"Safari is the fastest browser running on Windows"
One thing Apple is touting is the browser's speed. Their site goes on to say it "renders pages up to twice as fast as IE7 and 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2." This is Safari's main selling point. While I did notice it was faster than Firefox and IE, the difference wasn't earth-shattering. I don't believe this feature alone is significant enough to change browsers, since most browsers are pretty fast already.

"Apple engineers designed Safari to be secure from day one."
Less than 24 hours after the first version of Safari 3 was released, Internet security specialists (Aviv Raff, David Maynor, and Thor Larholm) and hackers found many security flaws. An update was later released.

"World's Best Browser"
It's got a long way before Safari 3 could call itself the World's Best Browser. Maybe those claims worked when it was only made for Macs, but making these type of claims is an open invitation to hackers.