I've been using Safari (version 4 now) on both Windows and OSX. I've given it a thorough test drive. Now it's time to give it the thorough thrashing that it deserves.
First, let's start with the crashes.
My very first experience with my brand new Mac was opening Safari, only to be greated by Safari crashing! I had to "update" the POS so it could even open on my freaking MAC! Let me brief on the "update" as well. Apple's idea of "update" means uninstalling the old version and installing an entirely new version. Sometimes this even affects shortcuts in a negative way. Ever heard of patches, Apple?
I've since become pretty used to the instability. It's a really terribly unstable browser for anybody doing anything beyond casual web surfing. Of course, I decided to post this blog in Safari. After getting about half my post done it crashed. All was lost. It was a lot funnier than this posting too (that I'm now typing in wordpad for safety).
Let's talk about the best thing to happen to browsers in the last 5 years. Tabs.
Safari is TERRIBLE at tabs! First off, I have a widescreen 22" monitor and even with Safari maximized and my resolution set to full I can only see 16 tabs in the tab bar. That's pathetic. Absolutely pathetic. Worse still, it's impossible to SCROLL! You have a stupid little arrow that opens an overflow box. Clicking one of "tabs" in the overflow box focuses your browsing experience over an appropriate number of tabs based on how many deep you are in the overflow, but does NOT show visually in your tab bar! You get no indication at all in the tab bar. Not too slick, Apple.
Similarly, if you already have enough tabs to justify the overflow bar (this takes about 10 seconds of browsing) and you middle click a couple more links that look interesting, you get absolutely no indication whatsoever that they've even opened. Maybe they didn't. So, you check the overflow, scroll down until you get to the end (also a very annoying lack that Safari has), and visually verify that they opened.
Once in a while I forget and think that it's a real browser and try to click into one of the folders I've created in my bookmark bar above my tab bar. POOF! All the tabs I was just looking at have been replaced, just by clicking (or, about half the time Safari freezes). There is no undo whatsoever and everything I was working on is now lost. A real browser, like Firefox, has Undo Close Tab. Brilliant! Safari simply closes everything I was working on and replaces opens all the tabs I "chose" to launch trying to view what was in a folder.
So, you'd think you could fix this kind of behaviour like in Firefox, right? No! Safari does not have any options whatsoever beyond something as simple as setting a font or changing your homepage. Nothing that can really let you adapt Safari to the way you work. Apple seems to be under this assumption (and has been extremely stubborn about it) that their way is the only way and you need to conform to IT, not change IT to suit YOU. Apple is this way with everything they do from Macs to iPods, but that's for another time.
Let's talk about a couple annoyances that Safari has set for defaults. First, invisible status bar. This behaviour comes from Mac OSX (where Apple believes the less information you have, the better). Mousing over a link does NOT show you where the link goes! Safari touts itself as such as 'safe' browser, but in no way whatsoever indicates to you that a link named "Finding Nemo DVD on Amazon" actually links to www.superhardcoreporn.com. In a real browser the bottom of your screen indicates where the link is actually headed (and in this case would have prevented your 4 year old son from finding out how babies are made in a very graphic fashion). Safe, huh? Fortunately, you can turn that on, which also turns on the status bar so you can tell what the heck Safari's doing while you're waiting and hoping that a web page is loading. Secondly (and I'll stop here) more than one "update" I've installed has turned off the MENU BAR by default. Nice one, Apple! Way to prevent a user from using your browser!
On to bookmarks. Bookmarks have the most useless managment tools available. Every time you delete something from a bookmarks folder through the manager, it closes the manager assuming you're done. Then, you go back in to the manager, go to the folder you want, scroll down to the item you want to delete and repeat. Very aggravating.
So, what about opening a bookmark. Surely it supports middle click, right? No, but I've found a "bug" that let's you get middle click functionallity if you middle click it and then left click it. Bookmarks are just as bad as their tab implemenation.
Searching has a cool option built right in. You highlight a selection of text and right click. Up pops the option to do Google Search. Nice touch. Click it and what happens? It REPLACES the tab you're in! What is it with Apple and tabs?!?!? Adding insult to injury, selection targeting is off on both sides. You have to select more than a character before and after what you really want to select or you'll be selecting only what's between the first and last characters of what you want to select.
But wait, searching get's better! Typing a search term in a real browser's URL bar makes a search using the default search engine. In Safari it says 'Safari can't find the server.' and 'url not found'!
Cleverly, Apple has some kind of database for Google searches that start popping up after you start typing a search in the search bar (note, NOT the url bar). So, did you catch the part about AFTER you start typing?!?!?! Yes, there's a delay, and worse still, anything you typed before it "caught up" is deleted! So many times I've serched for something like "herman miller chair" only to get "rman miller chair" and Google's 'Did you mean...?'. Ricockulous indeed. So, you start getting used to hitting a key, hitting backspace, and typing what you're really searching for. Not something one should have to get used to. Also, when that list pulls up you can select something with the mouse from the available search terms. The mouse properly highlights the line you're mousing over, but when you click it, you're left only with what you'd typed in the box! Apple does such a tremendous job testing all their products...
Last, but not least, reload and stop share the same space, but change the icon. No reason for this and it doesn't make anything slick, Apple. In fact, sometimes it prevents either from working properly.
