Apple Safari 4 beta: Initial Impressions

Posted February 24, 2009

Apple has just released the beta version of Safari 4. They are calling it the “world’s fastest web browser.” When I told my co-worker that, his response was, “Even faster than Google Chrome?”  Since Google Chrome is not out yet for the Mac I can’t do a fair comparison.  I would say that sites do render way faster in Safari 4 than in any other browser.  It is still in beta.  Even I found a bug while writing this post.  I actually had to switch back to Firefox because I couldn’t do some things in my editor.  One thing that I miss in Firefox and Chrome that all versions of Safari are missing is the ability to just quickly go to a particular tab.  For example, on a Mac, if I have six tabs open in Firefox, if I’m on the first tab and I want to go to the forth tab, all I have to do is press ‘Command + 4’ and I’m there.  I don’t have to click on the tab with my mouse or Ctrl-tab my way to the forth tab.  Remember, the keyboard is always faster than the mouse.  Maybe I’ll do a post on my keyboard shortcuts one day.

By the way, once again… if you are still using Internet Explorer 6, please upgrade.  Actually, if you are using Internet Explorer, my question is… why?  🙂  Google Chrome, Firefox, or Safari are the way go.