Apple's Safari 4 underdelivers on community

Apple promises much with its Safari 4 browser, but it ultimately underdelivers. This isn't really its fault: the browser has simply become too big of a product for any one company to manage. Safari 4's blessing and cursing is that it's the brainchild of just one company. Safari lacks community.

Safari 4 is in public beta, but it comes with some pretty grandiose claims: "The fastest and most innovative Web browser for Mac and PC." This would resonate a bit more if Safari 4 didn't strive so hard to replicate features that Mozilla's Firefox browser already innovated (e.g., the "Awesome Bar"), offered performance that lives up to its billing (I found page rendering to be delayed on my Mac and not much faster, if at all, than either Internet Explorer on Windows or Firefox on the Mac), and came with a community to fill in the many missing features that the Firefox community delivers in spades.

Safari 4 installation screen

As CNET News' Stephen Shankland points out, it's this lack of an add-on community that handicaps Safari 4 the most: "The lack of something like the extensions architecture that Firefox pioneered still means Safari 4 is better only than Safari 3, not the competition."

Firefox, of course, is open source, and Safari, while borrowing from open source, is firmly proprietary. But that's not an excuse. The thing that has made Microsoft so powerful upon the desktop is that it has bred a rich partner ecosystem for Windows and Office which delivers Firefox-like add-on value. (Interestingly, Microsoft has largely failed to accomplish the same thing with IE.)

So, Apple could foster community around Safari 4, and perhaps it will: Apple has demonstrated with its App Store for the iPhone that it knows how to create an add-on culture.

But for now, Apple's Safari 4 claims ring hollow. If its community-building efforts are anything like what Apple accomplished for Safari 3, they will continue to ring hollow.

I'm a huge Apple fan and have used Macs exclusively for a long time, but Apple cannot keep pace with the innovation of the Firefox community. It's just one company, however smart and driven. It needs to bring the power of its App Store community-building to Safari or its new browser will remain underwhelming and underpowered.

Follow me on Twitter at mjasay.

[TheForestFloor]

I'm not so sure it 'under-delivers'. I've found several sites that I use every day that are noticeably snappier, including a page that I visit every day:

http://www.bgesmartenergy.com/peakrewards/enrollment-map

This page loads in about 30 seconds on any version of IE, and at least 10 seconds on any of the currently released crop of browsers, but loads in both Safari 4 and the Firefox beta in under 2 seconds, and less than half of that time on a page reload. Sites that are normally over-burdened with flash (including news.cnet.com) load astoundingly quickly in comparison to Safari 3, and especially Firefox 3, which is also slowed by loading myriad useful but often poorly-optimized plugins. Since the internet consumes so much of my waking life, I'm less impressed by marginal improvements in user interface and plugin technology, and more impressed with time savings while getting my work done.

In all, I'm very happy with the performance boost, and I look forward to seeing what further improvements Apple and Mozilla will make when their browsers go GM. I'm not expecting much from Microsoft, but then again, I never did.

[Matt Asay]

The primary problem is a lack of community, not performance. I've seen reports that it's faster, but again, I didn't get that feeling while I was using it. It was actually noticeably slower on some sites (like NewsNow, ESPN Soccernet, etc.). But speed isn't the issue: Camino has always been very fast. The trouble with Safari is that it lacks an add-on community. Apple has shown with the App Store that it can create Firefox-esque community, but it has failed to bring that fervor to Safari. It needs to.

[danielwsmithee]

Community is overrated. I know some people love their firefox plugins but most people never install any. I'm very impressed with Safari 4. It adds the features that Chrome and Firefox 3 have championed but does it in a clean useable manner (Chrome is good in this area too). Firefox needs some real work on usability.

[DiscGo]

No offense but B.S.

I just loaded your page on Safari, FireFox, and IE8. Safari was the slowest of all three.
http://www.bgesmartenergy.com/peakrewards/enrollment-map

This is just another example of MAC users being blind to any inferiority in MACs.

[Perry_Clease]

"This is just another example of MAC users being blind to any inferiority in MACs."

It is Mac, not MAC.

[Matt Asay]

Meaning, if someone wanted speed without all the add-on bells and whistles, one could use Camino.

[BOTNET]

is apple shipping their web browser with every AppleOS? Yes?, well is EU going to file antitrust lawsuit against Apple as well? And even better question, is Google going to join EU?

no I'm just joking here. any web browser is welcome if it competes fair way. Will I switch? NOPE

[kc6hur]

OSX does not use Safari as it's rendering engine; whereas, Windows using IE does. That's why M$ says they cannot separate "church" and "State". Windows and IE are joined at the hip.

[kelmon]

@ kc6hur

It depends on how you look at it. OS X does use WebKit for rendering HTML content that any application that uses the WebKit framework. WebKit is a fundamental component of OS X and cannot be removed, at least not without causing problems. Safari can be removed but that only removes the application and not the framework that it depends on.

[ZetaZeta_]

OS X relies on webkit, Safari relies on webkit. OS X does not rely on Safari. In that line of thinking, all M$ has to do is "call" the IE rendering engine something else. Windows would then rely on "Microsoft RenderingEngine" or whatever they want to call it, and so would IE. It's that simple. Rework the IE GUI so that it can be removed, and viola, minimum changes to the system, problem solved.

DERP DERP DERP

[rufwork]

It's not about rendering. It's about Javascript. Compare reader.google.com on Saf 3 vs. Saf 4. There is a nice improvement.

If you want to host an app in a browser, Safari just got a lot better serving as its host.

[rapier1]

One of the things I'd be most interested in finding out is what sort of impact improved javascript has on the totality of the user experience. For example, if User A, during the course of a day, is bottlenecked 10% of the time by slow javascript what sort of weighting does improved JS performance have vis a vis improved rendering speed, server side optimizations (especially in the DB) and so forth. If on the other hand, a user is bottlenecked 50% of the time how does the weighting change?

I'm not saying JS improvement isn't important or advocating one browser over another. I'm just curious as to how the relative importance of JS performance improvements can be quantified in terms of user experience.

[gravy jones]

I will refrain from putting Safari 4 on any Microsoft O/S. The reason is simple. When Apple failed to recognize and failed to fix, in a timely manner, the carpet bomb bug that occurred on Windows, I felt deep down that Apple might have it out to damage Windows in a small way with its browser. After all, leaving bugs in the code and claiming they weren't found can be a legitimate defense.

Where's the 0xBEEF

[ppgreat]

So are you using Firefox as opposed to IE?

[lenrooney]

Thanks for taking a strong stand against monopolies and monocultures by only supporting one at a time.

[kelmon]

I feel that Apple would do itself more damage by purposefully allowing bugs in the Windows version than it would gain anything. The Carpet Bombing issue was a ****-up by Apple but one that I do not believe had malicious intents. Still, I do think that you are quite within your rights to use something else if you have had a bad experience with Safari for Windows, although if that something else was something other than IE then that would be great.

[MaggieRed]

So Matt, hopefully you haven't given up your comedy gig.

Let's see I think this article's response to the product can be summed in one word and one number: BETA 1.

So how many of you are on blood pressure medicine?

[ZetaZeta_]

Aren't betas generally feature complete?

[goodspeed8701]

the speed of the browsers or java whatever will not help in anyway. except you want to race your browser. IE is still the best as i come accross soft sites that needs active x etc. to work. it may be slow but i cant see any good replacement. i use firefox cos of one addon i use to upload my site.

this are list of some sites that needs IE http://toastytech.com/good/badsitelistframe.html i dont know if they now work with firefox and others.

safari is like another toy. just like osx compared to windows. M$ makes it easier for developers to write programs on their platform e.g dirct x. IE is superb and its still better.

[kelmon]

That some sites still require IE is the reason why IE should be banned. You cannot have parts of the World Wide Web that is off-limits to anyone without a Windows PC.

I would also note that speed is important since we are all busy people and no one wants to have to wait longer than necessary.

[Goodbye Helicopter]

hmm... community???
community what?
what is this "community" supposed to do?

[Daniel L Smith]

I've never installed a Firefox add-on, and don't feel like I'm missing anything.

I don't want my browser to be a bloated conglomeration of independently-developed, mostly not-very-well-done add-on "features" that I rarely use (see also the App Store). What's most important to me is a good interface and efficiency. Leaving development of my custom-built browser to a "community" will have a negative effect on both of those counts.

[ZetaZeta_]

The pioneers in the 1800s never owned a PC, and they didn't feel like they were missing something.

[michaelj2]

Lack of community? Not open source? Have you seen this website ever?

http://webkit.org/blog/

There are a number of add-ons available for Safari that you are probably unaware of as well. Poorly researched opinion piece...

[CrisC--2008]

I have to get on the band wagon concerning "community". This, IMO, is up to the individual to judge what extra bells & whistles he/she chooses to add.

What I look for is speed, security, and look & feel. I am very disappointed in IE in all these aspects, and emphasize the fact that, for the Mac, IE is no longer supported. It appears to me that Apple is paying attention to what is important, first & foremast, but continuing to expand Safari's capabilities (see 150 Features at http://www.apple.com/safari/features.html ) I see specific statements regarding 'community' items (plug in support; scriptable plug in support & etc.)

As far as the Firefox 'community' goes, I think this beta introduction will go a long way turning Firefox users. I am very encouraged that Apple is truly addressing cross-platform congruity, and soliciting user input in doing so.

[kelmon]

Ultimately, it's a web browser. I've never seen the fascination with Extensions in Firefox or even its Themes. For this reason I am not in the slightest bit bothered about a community around the browser itself. That WebKit appears to work very well as a project and is delivering real benefits to Safari is all that really matters to me. Certainly I am not going to hold this against Safari.

[J34S]

I'm Safari 4.0 beta. It is faster and is stable. Love the cover view and window pane effects as well as using the menu bar for tabs, give 20 or so pixels of screen estate back to the main browser window. (Yes, I invented that term! Jeff Simpson® :) )

The only issue is that I've lost the ability to save videos. I teach physics and used to download QuickTimes by clicking in the lower right of the video playing in the browser window. Safari 4.0 beta has removed this feature.

Regarding Internet Explorer, my on-line students can't use IE as it keeps losing their info when submitting.

[sh56]

J34S,

- Right-click on the movie window to bring up the contextual menu
- Select "Inspect element".
- Find the movie's URL and right-click on it.
- Select "Download linked element"

There may be other ways to do the same thing.

[jpbartlett]

I used Safari 3 on my mac for over a year before switching to the very stable FF 3.1b3pre or Shiretoko or Minefield depending on when you loaded it. After using Shiretoko for 3 months Safari 4 feels like a step back. I haven't done any measurements but just in terms of basic stuff like page load times, Shiretoko is much snappier than Safari 4. Need to give it time of course as it's beta and just released but after running for a day happy to go back to Shiretoko.

[FellowConspirator]

If the complaint is that there isn't a site for hosting plugins, that's correct. Apple has not made a dedicated Safari plug-in site. It's not that there aren't plug-ins (which are easier to implement in Safari 4 BTW), just that it doesn't have a registry for them.

I'm not sure that's a big failure. It's kind of nice to have it built into the browser in FireFox, but I wouldn't say it's a deal breaker to have to surf over to pimpmysafari.com to fetch a plugin.

[ausernamenoonehaschosen]

Add me to the list of folks who really like the new Safari. I used it all last night, and it is just about as fast as the Firefox beta, in my opinion. That's not what I care about though, as much as the new additions (the new use of coverflow is nice). If I were on a Windows computer, I may stick with Firefox, since they seem the same, but Firefox has the addons (which I never use, but like having available). On a Mac though, the integration with the other mac apps and OS is a big plus.

[phineasfogg]

As danielwsmithee said above, Community is over rated. It seems that reviews by the biggies in the industry, CNET, MacWorld, etc., are for the top 10% of the overall Mac user world. The insiders, the real Geeks, those who constantly search for the perfect app, the perfect browser, etc. I'm a geek because I have a EE degree.... from the late 60's and have used Apples constantly since 1979. But I've not been a nit-picker when it comes to apps. I either like it or not or somewhere in the middle.

The Safari 4 public beta is a great way to get us, the more silent majority, involved and see if we like it or like it better than another browser, or really care.

I like it better than Safari 3. Firefox is fine but I'm happy with Safari and it just got better: faster for sure, more "user friendly" with some nifty features. On a scale of 1-5, 5 being awesome, I give Safari4 a 4.5

[ecotopian--2008]

Safari 4 is crazy fast. Community is a non-issue. How many people actually customize their web browser?

[Dalmatian28]

Just another Firefox victim! Darn, that little browser! How ridicules is the fact that you have Microsoft, Google and Apple trying to compete with Mozilla... and they seem to be loosing the fight! I guess, money is still inferior to talent! I am just surprised that none of these big three didn't decide to purchase Mozilla. It is probably just a matter of time before one of them dumps pile of cash for it!

[mr cap]

Some of us still want a clean and simple tool that works. Not whistles and bells. I want to drive the car not change the transmission. The convolution of the many browsers you mentioned is exactly what I don't want. All the added BS. Keep it simple Apple that's what brung 'em here!