Apple recently released Safari 4 Beta for the Mac and PC. I was excited at first, but after taking it for a spin, I was left feeling disappointed. I wasn’t hoping for a slew of add-ons, like the Mozilla folks have, but better privacy and security functionality.
Privacy and Security Issues
Apple seems to have fixed the fraudulent sites filter/warning bug, which is good. In the past, I have seen an error message telling me that the service is out of date and Safari would crash something awful until this option was unchecked. Here’s my beef:
- No visual cue (can be subtle) that you’re using the browser in Private Mode, unlike Firefox. You certainly might not want it broadcasted that your browsing privately, but a visual cue would be welcome.
- Cookie management still sucks. Despite Safari being the only browser to have third-party cookies disabled by default, there is no way to
easilyautomatically clear these [by default] after each session or set up exceptions like in Firefox (img).To clear all cookies, you can setup a keyboard shortcut (Option-Cmd-R) to Safari → Reset Safari… in the menu bar via System Preferences → Keyboard & Mouse → Keyboard Shortcuts → Application Keyboard Shortcuts, which I use before I quit Safari.
- Cookies are still sent and received when using Safari’s Private Browsing mode. Huh? The cookies are deleted after you quit Safari, but this behavior does not prohibit cookie-sharing during a session. FYI, Firefox and Opera are the only two browsers, according to Steve Gibson, of the Gibson Research Corp., that are capable of blocking outgoing cookies.
- Cookies are acquired (img) from sites that “magically” appear in Safari’s “Top Site” viewer, even if you have never visited that site. Not cool.
Pros
Thank God in heaven that Apple enabled zoom text only. IMHO, the user should have the option to keep images on sites the size at which they were intended to be viewed. Safari 4 beta does load pages and run JavaScript pretty fast. I have always thought that Webkit was better than Gecko under the hood. Safari’s squeaky-clean interface and new title-bar tabs certainly follow Apple’s minimalist mantra…which is nice. Plays nice with 1Password.
Cons
Safari 4 beta is a fatty-boom batty, memory hog. After perusing through the Safari 4 beta Apple forum, it seems Top Sites, history Cover Flow, and the top-tabs features are the likely culprits. On average, Safari 4 beta creeps up to 300+ MB RAM after several hours of use. Still no sorting of bookmarks , using 1Password requires a hack (it is beta), and privacy functionality is still crap (see above).
Just to be clear, not all cookies are bad [I enjoy a good peanut butter chocolate-chip from time to time]. Just the [often-times 3rd party] cookies that are used to track your every move over the course of your browsing session.
Rating
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After installing Safari 4, I still continue to get an error message telling me that the Google Safe Browsing Service is unavailable/out of date, but at least the browser no longer crashes. Also, I was concerned/confused as to why I would see a cookie for doubleclick.net in my cookie cache, despite having “Accept cookies only from sites I visit” checked. Kinda disappointing.
Update: 5-Jun, 2009
A recent article by C. Harwick, Safari 4’s Messy Trail, similarly mentions issues with Safari’s privacy functionality. Harwick’s complaints seem to be about Safari’s image/history caching habits and doesn’t mention anything about cookies. The article states that webpage previews and history items linger on your computer despite making the necessary changes in the browser settings. In my experience with the new beta, however,
- the “Remove history items” feature works as advertised
- “~/Library/PubSub/Feeds/” stores XML files for RSS feeds, not Top Site information
- and “/private/var/folders/*/-Caches-/com.apple.Safari/Webpage Previews/,” which stores webpage thumbnails for the coverflow history, AND your browsing history do get wiped out after selecting “Safari → Reset Safari…” from the menu bar
So, Safari’s a cache hog. No news, really.
24-Feb, 2009 at 3:06 pm
Yo, what’s the dilly with safari and assblock plus? ABP is tite.
25-Feb, 2009 at 11:00 am
Check out Safari Adblock. Once installed, go to the Known Adblock Plus subscriptions page, find a subscription you want to use, and under the “Important Links” column, copy the URL of the “List” text file (not the Subscribe URL). Open the Safari Adblock preference pane in Safari, go to the “Subscriptions” tab, click the plus sign at the bottom, and paste the URL into the subscription field. You can give the filter any name you wish.