Make Safari Awesome

Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
I lately have been testing out the Safari 4 Beta. It's speed alone was good enough to get me to think of switching back from Firefox. I did, however, find myself missing a few features I had come to depend on with Firefox.



There are two free extensions out there, though, that have made Safari my full-time browser.



First is SafariBlock. Instead of being some obscure adblocking extension that requires custom filters, it's an extension of the AdBlock for Firefox add-on. It allows for list subscription and automatic updating, and has made browsing the web as ad-free in Safari as it was in Firefox. Check.



The second is Glims which is a fairly new add-on to the scene, but has shot straight to the top of my list of best Safari add-ons. It replicates almost all the features I missed from Firefox. From the site:



Quote:

Current features list:

Adds thumbnails to Google.com search results

Adds thumbnails to Yahoo.com search results

Adds search engines to the default Google search tab

Adds full-screen browsing capability

Adds Favicons to tab labels

Adds keyword search from address bar

Undo "Close Tab" (cmd-z)

Re-opens last session when Safari starts

Auto-Closes download window

Focus last selected tab

Always open links in a new tab

Type-ahead support (auto cmd-f)

Sets the focus on the search field when opening a new window

Adds Amazon's information banner on Google.com search results

Adds Amazon's information banner on Yahoo.com search results

Adds a "Max Window Size" menu item to resize the Safari window

Forms autocomplete always on

Dated download folders

Localized to Japanese, French, Greek, and German

Tested with WebKit lastest build ( www.webkit.org )

Whats new in this version:

Added Custom Search Engines

Added Keyword/Shortcut Support

Minor improvements to Suggestion Window

Improved Google Thumbnails (back to normal, sorry for the glitches of the previous release)

Improved Webkit Support

Improved Autcomplete Always On

Rewrite of the Tab Restore Feature (we now use fully the Safari session restore functionality)



For GreaseMonkey there's Greasekit, which I've found to work fairly well. And TwiceTab allows me to double-click on the tab bar to open a new tab.



I now, more or less, have a browser that is feature-equivalent to what I had shaped Firefox to be, but far more integrated to my operating system and far, far faster.



These extensions are available for free and work with Safari 3, and the Safari 4 beta is available for free if you sign up (for free) with the Apple Developer Connection.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 7
    albimalbim Posts: 68member
    could you give me a link to the safari 4 beta? I've come across a link but I didn't download it.
  • Reply 3 of 7
    trowatrowa Posts: 176member
    thank you for sharing. Glims is exactly what I was looking for to enhance Safari. There were some features in FireFox that I was unhappy to not find in Safari



    For those of you who want to check out Safari 4 but don't want to sign up for the Apple Dev Connection.

    Check out:

    http://nightly.webkit.org/



    It is basically safari 4 with the new SquirrelFish javascript engine that blows even FireFox away in terms of speed and stability.



    Now all we need is growl support and a more robust plug-in architecture supported by Apple.



    Safari is really coming along to be a fantastic browser.
  • Reply 4 of 7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Ireland View Post


    http://www.apple.com/feedback/macosx.html



    I see what you're trying to say, but to be honest, Apple is pretty much as quick as Microsoft at getting new features injected into their browser. I could send them an e-mail suggesting features, but I wouldn't expect them to show up until Safari 7 or something like that.



    Meanwhile, extensible browsers are not a bad thing. The idea of a browser being a platform is a good idea, and as long as the coding is tight, it allows, safely, for a user to build a product that best suits their workflow.



    For example, I would never expect Apple to include something like Greasekit in a browser. These are people who have worked extremely hard to produce a browser that passes the Acid3 test at 100%. Completely standards compliant. Greasekit purposely breaks webpages. It's almost against the ideology that the Safari team has. But that doesn't make Greasekit a bad piece of software. It's extremely useful.
  • Reply 5 of 7
    albimalbim Posts: 68member
    I've been using the nightly build for a week or so now, and I love the speed of it, but it "unexpectedly quits" VERY often. I had the same problem with Opera, however. Safari 3.1.2 doesn't do this almost at all. When I first opened up the Oct 16 nightly build, it said I had a plug-in that wouldn't agree with the browser, so I went into user/library/input manager and deleted the .bundle (i didn't even need it). But, the problem still persisted.
  • Reply 6 of 7
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by ALBIM View Post


    I've been using the nightly build for a week or so now, and I love the speed of it, but it "unexpectedly quits" VERY often. I had the same problem with Opera, however. Safari 3.1.2 doesn't do this almost at all. When I first opened up the Oct 16 nightly build, it said I had a plug-in that wouldn't agree with the browser, so I went into user/library/input manager and deleted the .bundle (i didn't even need it). But, the problem still persisted.



    Interesting. I've had no stability problems with Safari 4. As for the incompatable plugin, does it have a copy in System/Library/... ?
  • Reply 7 of 7
    erunnoerunno Posts: 225member
    Safari needs to get its act together concerning memory usage. After a long, hard day of internet usage it has been not uncommon that the real memory usage of Safari accumulated over 500 MB and kept it for the rest of the session. Compare that to the 250 MB Firefox uses (at worst!). Now before everybody jumps up and down and screams "memory cache! memory cache!": Well, other browsers have been doing this as well. For years. But contrary to Safari they have working cache policies which release memory after some time. Has this improved with the latest builds of Safari 4?



    Anyway, thanks for pointing out Glims. The search does not work as well as Inquisitor but it has some other nice features and Safari keeps crashing occasionaly, especially while configuring search engines. But it's still beta, so who am I to complain (too loudly).



    I'd be really grateful for a plug-in architecture in Safari as I fear the input manager hacks won't work forever and Safari without SafariBlock, Glims (or Inquisitor + Stand) doesn't simply offer enough to use it despite having a far superior integration with OSX.
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