Those darn Firefox bookmarks
One thing that’s proving to be a deal breaker for me with Firefox is the way it organizes bookmarks in the sidebar.
With Safari, when you click on a folder in the sidebar, you get a list of all its bookmarks in the main part of the window along with their URLs. Click on another folder, and the list instantly changes.
With Firefox, when you click on a folder, it toggles open and the bookmarks are listed below it. This isn’t so bad if the folder is near the top, but if it is in the middle or near the bottom, you wind up having to scroll to see the entire list. And if you want to switch to another folder, you first have to close the one you’re in or you’ll wind up with a real mess.
Clicking on bookmarks also brings different results. With Safari, the sidebar disappears and the entire browser window is devoted to the site you’re visiting. With Firefox, the sidebar remains in place, creating a cramped view of the site. Some might argue it’s handy to have the sidebar stick around if you’re visiting a lot of sites, but I prefer to have it get out of the way.
Another thing I appreciate about Safari is that each of the bookmarks has a favicon to the left of it instead of the generic icons shown by Firefox. It’s a small thing, but it’s one of those nice touches that you come to expect from Apple products.
Posted Thursday, July 2, 2009 in Web-browsers
StumbleUpon for Safari
Speaking of Firefox, one of the main things I use it for is the StumbleUpon toolbar add-on, which allows you to randomly browse websites in categories of your choosing. You can also give them ratings, write reviews and share with friends.
StumbleUpon is not officially supported for Safari, but there are a couple of ways to get around this. First, you can use a demo by clicking on this link. The toolbar doesn’t have all the features of the official version, but it looks slick and covers the basics. Second, you can install Stumbli. It puts another menu in Safari, with options for stumbling, reviews and so on — not quite the same as having a toolbar, but you can always use keyboard shortcuts. They want $4 for it.
Posted Tuesday, June 30, 2009 in Web-browsers
Firefox 3.5 is out
The latest version of Firefox is out, and it’s faster than ever — or so they say.
According to Mozilla’s test results, Firefox can load Javascript-laden websites in mere milliseconds. This is a good thing, because an increasing number of sites use applications based on Javascript in one way or another. Think of all those sites that let you share documents, edit photos or backup your files.
Other features include anti-phishing and anti-malware technologies for better security, thousands of add-ons for customization, and enhancements to private browsing.
I’m a confirmed Safari browser, but I’ll be taking the latest Firefox out for a spin over the next few days to see how it compares.
Posted Tuesday, June 30, 2009 in Web-browsers
The weird tabs are gone
The final version of Safari 4 is out, and the controversial tabs across the top that showed up in the beta are gone. Can’t say I’ll miss them. In their place are tabs similar to those in version 3, but with nice shading that makes it easier to distinguish one from another. Thank heavens sanity prevailed.
The progress bar in the address space is also back — sort of. There is now an indicator at the far end with a dark background that says “Loading.” At a certain point, the background turns clear. The jury’s still out on this one. In limited testing, it seems the background goes clear after a few seconds regardless of how much of the page has loaded.
Posted Monday, June 8, 2009 in Web-browsers
Stainless does tabs right
There has been much rumination and wringing of hands over the positioning of the tabs in Safari 4 beta. It’s not just the fact that they’re at the top — there are other problems. First, there is no longer a proper title bar to grab onto for moving the window around. Second, the first tab takes in the three dot-widgets on the left, which makes it seem as if that tab alone has control of them. Third, the tabs expand to take over the entire width, which is non-intuitive. Fourth, you have to grab onto little tread marks to rearrange them.
So is there a better way? Yes there is, and you can try it out in Stainless — a web browser that started as a proof of concept and has progressed into a full-fledged project. It has some great features, but let’s start with the tabs. First, even though the tabs are at the top, there is still a strip above them for a proper title bar. Second, the first tab doesn’t take over the widgets. Third, the tabs are all the same size — unless, of course, you have so many that they have to adjust to fit. Fourth, you can grab the tabs anywhere if you want to rearrange them.
Why didn’t Apple think of that?
Stainless was originally designed to demonstrate how a Mac browser could have independent processes in each tab, just as Google’s Chrome does. With web-based apps now more prevalent, this will become an important technology. If one website crashes, you’ll be able to carry on your work in another tab. Stainless goes a step further by offering parallel sessions.
[They] allow you to log into a site using different credentials in separate tabs at the same time. This new technology is woven throughout Stainless, from the private cookie storage system, to session-aware bookmarks that remember the session in which they were saved.
Another neat trick is a shelf on the side where you can place favicons for your bookmarks.
Stainless is only at version 0.5.1, so there are still lots of features missing. It looks quite promising, though, and is definitely an app to keep on your radar. It’s a small download and launches wicked fast.
Posted Thursday, March 5, 2009 in Web-browsers
About those Safari 4 tabs
There is some lively discussion over at Macworld about the good and bad of placing tabs at the top in Safari 4. I’m thinking that even if you get used to it, and even if you came to prefer it, tabs at the top would still be a pain. Why? Because no other browser does it.
Let’s say you’re checking the news in NetNewsWire. You’ve got a bunch of tabs open — tabs in their traditional spot — and you decide to open one of them in Safari. It’ll work just fine, but along the way you’ll have to change your mindset to Safari’s way of handling tabs. And it could be that you’re actually more interested in the content of the article you’re reading than niggling details like the placement of tabs. It will be a minor nuisance every time.
It’s been said that part of good design is putting things where people expect to find them. Maybe Apple will convince every other browser maker to follow along, but it’s doubtful. In the end, Apple will have to relent and at least make tab placement a preference.
Posted Thursday, February 26, 2009 in Web-browsers
OmniWeb now free, but do you care?
The Omni Group has announced that four of its programs, including the OmniWeb browser, are now freeware. They say they have their hands full with other projects, and decided to cut loose some of the apps that weren’t getting the attention they deserved. No doubt the release of Google’s Chrome and, more recently, Apple’s Safari finally pushed them over the edge. Keeping up with the innovations in these browsers would take a massive amount of time and effort.
I remember when OmniWeb first came out, many people questioned the viability of charging for a web browser when their were good ones being offered for free. A similar fate befell Opera. At one time we were expected to pay because of its advanced features, but that business model didn’t work out.
In a press release, the developers say, “OmniWeb is a powerful web browser with many unique time-saving, customizable features.” This implies OmniWeb has features that can’t be found in other browsers, but most people would be hard pressed to tell you what those features might be. The latest versions of Safari, Firefox and Opera are so slick, it’s hard to believe OmniWeb has any features that can compete with them.
As outlined in the press release, here are three other apps that are now freeware:
• OmniDazzle is a set of visual screen effects that can be used for presentations or capturing screenshots.
• OmniDiskSweeper is a disk cleanup utility.
• OmniObjectMeter is a Mac OS X memory optimization developer tool.
Links to all these programs can be found here.
Posted Wednesday, February 25, 2009 in Web-browsers
Safari 4 beta: the first three steps
Step 1: Watch the cool animation that welcomes you to Safari 4, and allow yourself to be transported to its most impressive new feature — Top Sites. This gallery of favourite or most-visited sites (you choose) takes awhile to load the first time, but after that it appears almost instantly in all its eye-popping glory. Is Top Sites useful? Hard to say. It’s a good way of getting previews, but other than that . . .
Step 2: Click on the bookmarks icon and marvel at the Clover Flow implementation. Yes, it works just like in iTunes and the Finder. As you visit various sites, Safari adds previews and you can flip through them for previews. Again you might wonder why you need previews and be tempted to see this is little more than eye candy. But, hey, whoever said there was anything wrong with eye candy?
Step 3: Start browsing! Check out some of your favourite sites and see how they do. Look at where your tabs are — they’re way up on the top and it’ll take some getting used to. Also, Apple is once again claiming that Safari is the fastest browser around. I have to say it does seem snappier than Safari. But I’ve found that only time — say a few weeks — can truly judge the speed of a browser. After all, they all seem faster at first.
There is no Step 4, but if there were, it would be go nuts and have fun.
(Oh, and one more thing: Agile, please update 1Password to work with Safari 4. I fear I may be lost without it . . .)
Posted Tuesday, February 24, 2009 in Web-browsers
18 bugs hold up Firefox 3.1
We’ve been using the Firefox 3.1 beta for a few months now in the thriftmac lab, and have found it to be quite stable. Mozilla developers, however, have determined that there are still 18 bugs left that are serious enough to be showstoppers — and so a third beta that was promised for this month has been delayed. A final version of 3.1 is still tentatively on track for this quarter. Get the details from Macworld UK.
Posted Friday, January 30, 2009 in Web-browsers
Cruisin' with Cruz
Just in case you thought web browser innovation had reached a plateau, yet another app based on Webkit has been released with a bunch of features that should make the competition sit up and take notice. Cruz is only at version 0.1, so don’t expect a lot at this stage — but here is some of the amazing stuff listed on the site:
- Open plug-in architecture
- Built-in userscripting
- User styles
- ÜberView for plug-in split views
- Global keyboard shortcut
- Single-window browsing mode
- BrowsaBrowsa plug-in for sidebars
- Session restore
- Full-screen mode
- Customizable shortcuts
- Integrated gears-loading (InputManager)
- Hidden “closed” windows
- Thumbnail plug-in for CoverFlow
- TinyURL creation/expansion
- Automatic software updates
- Custom user-agent strings
- Full WebInspector
- Custom window opacity/level/style
And I found even more under the File menu:
- Mail link to this page . . .
- Create tiny URL for this page
- Down for everyone or just me
I couldn’t get the first two to work, but the third did indeed inform me that the site I was on was working fine.
Particularly encouraging is the fact that Cruz is being developed by Todd Ditchendorf, who created the wonderful Fluid, which allows you to create site-specific mini-browsers.
Posted Thursday, October 30, 2008 in Web-browsers
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