In the beginning, there was Netscape. Then Microsoft developed Internet Explorer (IE), building whole operating systems around it, bulldozing Netscape into also-ran status. The browser wars were declared over, with IE crowned the winner. But despite IE’s market dominance, new browser development is in full swing, which is a good thing for us, the consumers. On the Mac, there are several alternatives to IE - commercial offerings like Opera and OmniWeb; a new Netscape based on Mozilla’s open-source code; and Chimera, written exclusively for OSX in Apple’s Cocoa development language using Mozilla’s fast Gecko layout engine. Sound like a saturated market? Think again. At MacWorld San Francisco last month Steve Jobs unveiled Safari, billed as the turbo browser for OSX. It lives up to it’s billing, and then some.

Safari, officially a “public beta”, shares the iApp brushed metal look and feel. It’s only 7 MB installed, but it’s feature list is already impressive and sure to grow as user feedback is received.

Headlining the feature list is speed. Apple’s testing claims a 40% faster launch time than IE, page loading three times faster than IE, and JavaScript performance double that of IE. The only browser that can stay close to Safari on the speed track is Chimera.

Apple’s traditional ease-of-use is evident in other major features. Rather than having to go to the Yahoo or Google page and then type in your search request, in Safari you’ll find an integrated Google search field. Next is the Snapback button. How often have you worked your way through many layers of a web site, only to have to hit the Back button countless times to get back to first page of the site? Not any more. The SnapBack button returns you to where you last typed a URL or selected a Bookmark.

Speaking of Bookmarks, Safari’s simple and elegant bookmark management is a joy to work with. Safari also keeps track of all the websites in your Apple Address book. Finally, there’s built-in pop-up ad blocker.

For a beta release, Safari is off to a screaming start, with over a million downloads in the first month. It’s obvious that Apple has big plans to integrate Safari with all the other iApps. Safari requires at least OS 10.2, and is available for free download at: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/. Until next time, Semper Mac!

© 2003 Peter F. Zimowski