Let’s go surfin’ now. Everybody’s learnin’ how. C’mon and Safari with me!

Safari, Mac OS X’s “native” web browser, is one of the highlights of the Mac user experience. Before the development of Safari, Mac users had three mainstream choices: Netscape Navigator (which was bundled as the default browser on Macs until 1997), its bloated be-everything-to-everybody sibling Netscape Communicator, and Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE). In 1997, as part of a five-year cooperative agreement, IE became the Mac’s default browser.

In 2003, Apple released Safari, replacing IE as Mac OS X’s default browser. Safari has had some features since Day One that Microsoft has only recently gotten around to including in IE for Windows (they no longer develop or support IE for the Mac). Features like pop-up window blocking, integrated Google search window, tabbed browsing, and support for RSS feeds.

One of Safari’s best features is its page rendering speed. It’s fast. However, after long periods of use, Safari can bog down a little. Here are some easy do-it-yourself maintenance tips to keep Safari running at full speed. No need to call IT.

Tip One. Empty the cache. Like all modern web browsers, Safari caches, or saves in the background where you can’t see them, recently viewed web pages. Caching is designed to speed up the subsequent viewings of previously visited pages. It works quite well, especially if you have a slow internet connection.

When Safari returns to a previously viewed page, it compares the cached page with the “new” page, determining if it can used cached data to speed up delivering the page. If your cache gets too big, or gets corrupted, Safari can spend more time looking at cached data than it takes to fetch the new data from internet.

So, if Safari’s slowing down, empty the cache. Simply look under the Safari menu and click “Empty Cache”. This forces Safari to get “new” data for ever page, and may temporarily slow down Safari, especially if you are on a slow dial-up connection. But, if you’re on DSL or Cable, you should quickly see a speed improvement.

Tip Two. Reset Safari. In the Safari menu, there’s a “Reset Safari” selection. When selected, Safari empties the cache, clears cookies, clears History, and resets AutoFill information. One disadvantage to using this method is on web sites that require cookies, you may need to reenter log-in information to gain access.

Tip Three. Trash Website Favicons. What in the world is a favicon? Ever notice that some pages have small customized icons next to the web? These are favicons, and many web designers are including them on their sites these days. Safari stores each individual favicon graphic file in a folder on your hard drive, and retrieves them from there every time the page is viewed. Not only can they take up space, but it takes time to sift through and find the correct favicon with every page view.

You can trash these files by first quitting Safari, then looking in User > Safari > Icons, and dragging all the favicon icons to the Trash. Don’t worry – the folder will fill up again as you view more sites.

Tip Last. When in doubt, if Safari is really acting up, you can try deleting the Preferences file. Quit Safari, then go to User > Library > Preferences, and drag the file named “com.apple.Safari.plist” to the Trash. Note that you will lose all your settings, like Default Home Page. You will not, however lose your bookmarks, as they are stored in a different file.

Oh, and one bonus tip: get a faster internet connection.

© 2006 Peter F. Zimowski