Firefox 3.0
Apple recently removed the beta tag from Safari 4 and released an (apparently popular) final version for both OS X and Windows. I used Safari 2 when I first switched from PC to Mac but later began using Firefox, as it allowed me to keep my bookmarks synchronized between my iMac and my Windows PCs via the fantastic little plugin Foxmarks. Now that Foxmarks allows bookmark sync with Safari (and sports a new, browser-neutral name, Xmarks), I thought I would try using Safari for a week to see if there were any compelling reasons to switch back from Firefox. I didn't find any.
Apple has been bragging about Safari's speed advantage over Firefox and Opera, but my informal and completely subjective browsing tests haven't left me convinced that it's any faster. Safari seems to load just as quickly as Firefox, and it even seems that new tabs load more slowly in Safari than in Firefox (at least with Safari's default "Top Sites" feature enabled). Speaking of Top Sites, I find this feature visually appealing--my browsing history has never looked better--but not particularly productive. All of my frequently visited sites already appear in my bookmarks bar, which is both faster and easier for me to use than Top Sites.
The key phrase in that last statement is for me--Safari 4 just doesn't fit into my workflow as well as Firefox, and I've found myself becoming increasingly irritated at the way Safari handles some of my routine web browsing tasks.
Downloads
I don't like clutter, physical or digital. I like my desk and my office to be organized, and I expect the same thing of my computer. When I download a file, therefore, I immediately want to file it away in the proper folder, which by the way is rarely the Downloads folder. Unfortunately, Safari forces me to save all downloaded files to a single folder, which then requires me to open the Downloads folder and drag my recently-downloaded files to their proper place. Why require this extra step? Why not allow me to choose where to store each new download?
Tabs
Firefox gives me precise control over the behavior of its tabs so that just about everything I open appears in a new tab instead of a new window. Safari's behavior is not nearly as customizable, and I was frequently annoyed by links that opened new windows instead of new tabs. I also sorely missed Firefox's ability to reload all previously opened tabs when I start the browser. This allowed me to restart my browser or computer without having to worry about remembering where I had left off in my browsing. With Safari, I had to make sure I was finished with all tabs before closing the browser.
The "Awesome Bar"
Both Firefox and Safari have an "awesome" navigation bar that attempts to save the user a great deal of URL typing by guessing which page she would like to visit. Firefox's implementation of this feature worked far more effectively than Safari's for me. Safari seemed to suggest only pages that I had bookmarked or recently visited, while Firefox added Google search results to the mix. For instance, typing "fox news channel" into Safari's navigation bar returns an error page that suggests performing a Google search for the term "fox news channel." Firefox, on the other hand, takes me straight to foxnews.com.
Add-ons
Another venue in which Firefox trumps Safari is customization and extensibility. There are literally thousands of add-ons for Firefox that make web browsing much more productive and enjoyable, and I really began to miss the functionality added by plug-ins such as AdBlock Plus and Hyperwords.
Final Thoughts
Safari 4 isn't a bad browser, and given some time, I could probably get used to its idiosyncrasies. At the end of the day, though, Firefox allows me to work and browse more efficiently, even if it may render pages and JavaScript more slowly than its competitor from Cupertino. And with Firefox 3.5 right around the corner, I'm perfectly content to restore Firefox to its "default browser" status on my Macs.
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