Jim Barraud

Yesterday Apple released the public beta for Safari 4, their latest and greatest web browser. I’ve always been a Safari fan. It’s always seemed faster then the other browsers and has lead the way in implementing new standards and experimental features. And Safari 4 builds on that, while taking a couple missteps. Let’s take a look at some of the pros and cons.

Pros

• Speed. Safari 4 is significantly faster than any currently shipping browser and it’s very noticeable upon use. I say shipping because the current nightly builds of Firefox appear to be on par in terms of performance.
• Coverflow History. I’ve usually found browser history to pretty much useless unless you know the exact time your were looking at a particular site. Being able to scan through your history as a series screenshots is awesome and makes using the browser history much more usable.
• Topsites. While not particularly ground breaking (this was introduced with Google Chrome, topsites is a nice to have feature that will display your most visited sites as your homepage and notify you if they’ve changed.
• New Web Developer Tools. I haven’t had the time to fully try out the new web developer tools, but from my quick poking around I can tell they’re vastly improved over the previous version. Time will tell if they give Firebug any kind of run for it’s money.
• New Web Technology Support. I’m itching to try out some of the new standards (non-standards) support for upcoming web technologies they’ve added.

Cons

• Tabs at the top. Placing the tabs at the top of the window is an interesting choice, but I feel it’s done purely because google did it with Chrome. I don’t have so much an issue with the tabs at the top as much as I do with how they’re implemented. Now that the tabs are at the top in the window title bar, you can’t just drag anywhere on the tab to move it around. Doing that moves the window. You need to click and drag on the designated area on the far right of the tab to move it. You can also no longer double click anywhere on the tab bar to create a new tab, you need to click the designated button to do so. And visually having the tabs break up the title bar is a little jarring, especially when you have other windows layered on top of them as in the following image.

Overall I’m pretty impressed with the new Safari beta. And it is just that, a beta. I have noticed a couple bugs here and there, but no show stoppers. Like I said, my only real complaint is the new tabs, I’m just not digging them. Luckily there are a couple of hidden Safari preferences, one of which that allows you to revert back to the old tab style.

On twitter (my new favorite gauge of public opinion) I’ve noticed that the general reaction to the tabs has either been met with absolute dislike or the “going to try and get used to it” attitude. Along with a smattering of people who really like it. It will be interesting to see how Apple responds in further betas or in the final product.

Yesterday Google formally announced it’s long rumored browser, Google Chrome. The rumor that Google has been working on it’s own internet browser has been around for quite a while, but it’s mostly been based on Google’s relationship with Mozilla. It’s been thought that the fabled Google Browser would either be based of the Gecko engine or a retooled and rebranded version Firefox. But it turns out neither was correct.

Google Chrome was built from the ground up to handle the hefty demands of today’s web applications. Some of it was built in-house, other parts based on current open source software. The rendering engine is based on Apple’s Webkit. The same rendering engine that’s used in Apple’s Safari web browser as well as the browser used in Google upcoming mobile Android OS.

One of the biggest selling points of the browser is how it works under the hood. Each tab in Google Chrome runs it’s own process. Meaning if there’s a bug encountered in one tab, it won’t crash your entire browser and all the other tabs you may have open. Which is essential in this day and age with increased usage of web based apps. Other browser manufacturers have gotten around this issue by remembering which tabs were open when your browser crashed, then reloading them all when you relaunched your browser.

Another rumor that’s been around for quite some time is the Google OS. That Google is developing it’s own operating system to compete with Windows and OSX. While they have created their own open source mobile OS with Android, I’ve never pictured them creating their own PC based OS.

My theory is that Google Chrome is the Google OS. With the majority of Google’s applications being internet based, it makes a certain kind of sense that it’s “OS” would be a browser. A browser they can optimize to make the user experience of their applications more enjoyable as well engineer to be more secure and stable then other browsers on the market. And while they’re at it, make it open source. Allowing other browser manufactures to learn from and improve on Google’s advances, making the internet experience as whole more rewarding while integrating standards Google is promoting or has developed. As development progresses I would imagine Google will be tying it’s properties in even more into Google Chrome. Built in Gmail and Google Calendar services, native support for Google Gadgets, and integration with Google Docs.

You can read more about Google Chrome in this online comic Google put together. Google Chrome will be available later today in Beta for Windows only, with OSX and Linux versions coming soon.

Update: The beta (Windows only) of Google Chrome is now available.