Yesterday, Apple released Safari 4 (Beta) out into the world. Although I can't say I can feel the speed boost Apple claims with Safari 4, I believe all the benchmarks conducted by a bunch of tech blogs and they all say it kicks every other browser into the netherworld with varying margins (Internet Explorer 7 receiving the worst kick) in terms of its JavaScript execution engine. I also love the fact that my URLs are now much better auto-completed as I type them (à la Firefox 3) and that the History is now more extensive. The new developer tools are also pretty amazing and I look forwarding to using them, especially if it eliminates the need to use FireBug for testing websites. Also, I really like the fact that someone finally came to their senses and made the Windows version use Windows UI widgets and not look completely disgusting.
However, I am saddened - yes, saddened - to see how much time has been wasted on what I feel are completely useless feature additions to Safari. I absolutely do not understand why Apple is trying to make Safari be Google Chrome. Has Chrome picked up a particularly good slice of the browser market? No. Have people really expressed the opinion that the Chrome's "tabs-on-top" UI is vastly superior to the regular tabs in other browsers? No. In fact, most people I know played out with Chrome for a few days and then relegated it to their pile of unused software. As with Safari 4, the only thing I liked about Chrome was under the hood, that is, the fact that every tab ran in its own process. As for all the "UI innovativeness" that Chrome brought to the market, I don't have much to say. I certainly fail to see its merits.
And that is why I feel that Apple has wasted a lot of precious effort for nothing. Not only do the tabs on top look ghastly to my eyes, but they also don't make my tabbed browsing experience even an iota more pleasant. The "Top Sites" feature, which is also a direct rip-off from Chrome, is again something that I initially thought I'd find useful; but it never ended up falling into my workflow, and, believe me, adding a cool 3D effect to it is not going to change that. It was also the first thing I turned off in Safari 4.
Then there's CoverFlow, which was the second thing I turned off. I honestly don't know if there was any significant thought behind this at all. CoverFlow in Finder already gave off the vibe of "eh... this is kind of superfluous" and in Safari it seems to be shouting "we made this cool thing called CoverFlow and we're going to shoehorn it into every new app we make." Even in iTunes, where CoverFlow originated, I only used it for the first couple of weeks and can easily count on one hand the number of times I've used it in Finder.
And most painful of all, why the hell did they take out the progress-in-address-bar? Not only is the progress bar an essential feedback element, but Safari's was also most ingeniously implemented.
Thankfully, there seems to be some hidden preferences that can bring back some of Safari 3's goodness. However, I feel that Safari 3 definitely trumps Safari 4 as far as usability and sheer UI elegance is concerned and the Safari team should think twice about making Safari 4's the standard UI. At the least, these hidden preferences should be exposed in Safari's Preferences.
However, I am saddened - yes, saddened - to see how much time has been wasted on what I feel are completely useless feature additions to Safari. I absolutely do not understand why Apple is trying to make Safari be Google Chrome. Has Chrome picked up a particularly good slice of the browser market? No. Have people really expressed the opinion that the Chrome's "tabs-on-top" UI is vastly superior to the regular tabs in other browsers? No. In fact, most people I know played out with Chrome for a few days and then relegated it to their pile of unused software. As with Safari 4, the only thing I liked about Chrome was under the hood, that is, the fact that every tab ran in its own process. As for all the "UI innovativeness" that Chrome brought to the market, I don't have much to say. I certainly fail to see its merits.
And that is why I feel that Apple has wasted a lot of precious effort for nothing. Not only do the tabs on top look ghastly to my eyes, but they also don't make my tabbed browsing experience even an iota more pleasant. The "Top Sites" feature, which is also a direct rip-off from Chrome, is again something that I initially thought I'd find useful; but it never ended up falling into my workflow, and, believe me, adding a cool 3D effect to it is not going to change that. It was also the first thing I turned off in Safari 4.
Then there's CoverFlow, which was the second thing I turned off. I honestly don't know if there was any significant thought behind this at all. CoverFlow in Finder already gave off the vibe of "eh... this is kind of superfluous" and in Safari it seems to be shouting "we made this cool thing called CoverFlow and we're going to shoehorn it into every new app we make." Even in iTunes, where CoverFlow originated, I only used it for the first couple of weeks and can easily count on one hand the number of times I've used it in Finder.
And most painful of all, why the hell did they take out the progress-in-address-bar? Not only is the progress bar an essential feedback element, but Safari's was also most ingeniously implemented.
Thankfully, there seems to be some hidden preferences that can bring back some of Safari 3's goodness. However, I feel that Safari 3 definitely trumps Safari 4 as far as usability and sheer UI elegance is concerned and the Safari team should think twice about making Safari 4's the standard UI. At the least, these hidden preferences should be exposed in Safari's Preferences.
3 comments
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One reason the new tabs might look so strange is that they’re set in Helvetica, rather than Lucida Grande. Someone deserves a chance encounter with the cluebat for this.
Interestingly, Apple claims that Safari was the first browser to have a combination URL/progress bar. As far as I know, Opera (surprise) was first with that feature: I noticed it way back in Opera 2, but it just wasn’t shiny like Safari’s. Safari more clearly copied MSN Explorer, which used an identical design, featured in a series of “MSN butterfly” commercials aired nationwide.
Too bad the actual progress bar was removed. Safari’s progress bar was much more accurate than the ones in Firefox and IE.
I’m not surprised at the superfluous eye candy. Apple likes these things (cf. glassy Dock). -
i actually like the tabs on top because i get slightly more vertical space to display actual page content. i just wish they disabled click-through for those tabs because you can accidentally close them when switching from another window.
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spot on with the review of Safari 4.0
Even i had to revert back to the old progress bar in address bar thingy.
N even the tabs don't come out so easily.. U have to click on the top right ( diagonal Lines ) to take a tab out..
N in Safari 4, i dont think there's any way to stop a page while its loading. Even +. doesnt stop anything..
is any way out ?
I might be heading to back to safari 3 soon.. Damn
