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Faster, Safari! Kill! Kill!

by John Paczkowski
Posted on February 24, 2009 at 8:08 AM PT

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fikkjpgApple touts Safari 4, released as a public beta this morning, as the world’s fastest Web browser for Mac and Windows PCs, and after using it for a short time, it’s tough to disagree. Safari 4 is fast–three times as fast as Internet Explorer 7 and Firefox 3, if Apple’s typically hyperbolic claims are to be believed. That boost in speed is thanks largely to a new Nitro JavaScript engine (based on WebKit) that runs JavaScript up to 4.2 times faster than Safari 3, 30 times faster than IE7 and three times faster than Firefox 3, again according to Apple (AAPL).

Among the browser’s new features: an Opera-like Top Sites, which displays a mosaic of frequently visited pages; a Cover Flow visualization of browsing history that allows users to peruse previously viewed Web sites as they would albums in iTunes; improved tabbed browsing; Full Page Zoom, for a closer look at any Web site without degrading the quality of the site’s layout and text; and improved Windows integration that gives Safari a native look when its running on XP or Vista. Safari 4 is also Acid3-compliant, which means it has passed the Web Standards Project’s Acid3 Browser Test.

safari4_topsites

Notably absent from Safari 4’s new features list: further security enhancements, something that rival browsers have been quite focused on as of late and which Safari could clearly use.

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  • Bjorn Tipling
    So you raise doubt on a claim not only without presenting any kind of evidence, but with wrong incorrect information. The speed claims are made by Webkit, the open source project that develops the engine the browser uses. If you read their blog you'd know that "Nitro" is actually SquirrelFish Extreme, and if you were an engineer and could read the actual source code and understand the benchmark speed test results you'd know that the speed improvements are very impressive. If you read the Apple press release you see that they mention the speed tests used to support their claim on.

    You make a baseless claim with an undeserved air of indignation. You know some people actually contribute to making this world a better place by creating stuff. Some people work in teams and toil through months or years of labor and build products that enable others. The stark contrast are people that create nothing, but write and say empty things that contribute nothing.
  • Bjorn Tipling
    No but seriously, Apple is usually full of it. :D
  • Two things, Bjorn.

    - Apple's claims have not been independently verified, hence the caveat.

    - The first sentence of the post says -- explicitly -- that I find the browser to be quite fast.
  • John Stagaman
    The most surprising part of the update to me is that the Windows version of Safari now looks and functions like a native Windows application. I haven't seen that mentioned in the coverage of the beta so far, but it is on the Apple Safari 4 information site.

    For me, it's both good and bad: it makes the browser behavior more predicable for Windows users, but since I use both Macs and Windows, I liked that Safari 3 worked basically the same way on both platforms.
  • Bjorn Tipling
    John, you can run the tests yourself. ReadWriteWeb did its test.
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About John

John Paczkowski has been poking fun at the tech industry and the personalities that drive it since 1997. From 1999 to 2007, he wrote the award-winning tech news Web log Good Morning Silicon Valley for the San Jose Mercury News, Silicon Valley's daily newspaper. Read more »

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Here is a statement of my ethics and coverage policies. It is more than most of you want to know, but, in the age of suspicion of the media, I am laying it all out.

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