Apple's Safari Browser

So, we're talking Web browsers. Let's talk about Apple's….

There once was a day when your shiny new Apple Macintosh shipped with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser. There was a day before that one when the browser you got came from Netscape. But Microsoft won the day and then sort of abandoned Internet Explorer development on the Macintosh. Microsoft famously puts little effort into the Mac world, beyond their Office suite, today, and so it was with Internet Explorer. The Mac version always lagged behind the PC version. But at least it was there.

But Apple, then Apple Computer, is always mindful of their Mac baby and didn't like the buzz that "Mac browsers aren't as good as PC browsers. So they set about remedying the situation. There seemed to be no way to interest Microsoft in committing to developing IE to the same standards the rest of the world enjoyed, so they decided, in early 2003, to go it alone. As soon as Apple announced their new browser, Microsoft announced they were abandoning IE for the Mac.

Apple's Safari is becoming a terrific Web experience. It was the first browser to pass the Acid2 tests. It featured tabbed browsing, an extension-ready interface, and was remarkably fast right out of the gate. Being primarily a Macintosh browser, development of add-on's has lagged what's available on Firefox, but just as when comparing Mac software titles to PC software titles, it's easy to notice that numbers alone do not mean quality, and easy to see that Safari has all of the important bases covered, with more gadgets and doo-dad's being released all the time. Still, there are a lot more customizations you can do to Safari than, say, Internet Explorer on the PC.

Over the years, Safari has been updated, re-thought, updated again and deployed on other platforms. There is now a Safari for Windows users, and it's scrappy enough to be earning new adherents every week. And of course Safari is the Web browser for the Apple iPhone. The iPhone version isn't quite as complete as the Windows and Mac versions, in part owing to the differences in using a machine with a mouse versus with your fingertip. But it's very good, and getting better.

The Webkit engine used to render pages in Safari is incorporated in the new Adobe CS4 suite. So, Dreamweaver's new Design View is how your pages look and work in a real browser. This allows you to see things like fly-out menues and other JavaScript tricks without having to load your page in a real browser, which saves a lot of time.

I love looking into new browsers from time to time. It's interesting to jolt your expectations from time to time about how things are supposed to work. There is a lot to like, in Safari. And I expect it will be around, and will continue to improve, for a long time to come.