Advantages of Safari

• Operating system dictionary integration. Supporting shortcuts like dictionary lookup (command+shift+D).
• iPod touch bookmark syncing.
• Launches fairly fast and browses pretty quickly.
• Has an amazing search plugin.
• Interface is completely “Mac-like”.

Disadvantages of Safari

• Flash currently chokes in Safari. Safari won’t crash, but can easily freeze for over a minute when viewing Flash content.
• After three operating system updates, the vanishing cookie bug remains.
• Some websites still won’t let you use Safari to fill out forms, etc.

Advantages of Firefox

• Lightning fast. Has not crashed or froze on me once since install.
• The amazing awesome bar.
• The bookmark “star” system works wonders. Very easy for temporarily bookmarking websites for later reference.
• When multiple tabs are open, the tab bar scrolls.
• Supports Google Gears.
• Extensions can fill any feature void.

Disadvantages of Firefox

• Interface is only partially Mac-like, even with GrApple.
• Spell checking is not as nice as Safari.
• Firefox 3 occasionally renders some pages strangly, due to the new text rendering.

Looking over the lists, Safari’s advantages are mostly in the interface, while the disadvantages can quickly become show stoppers. For Firefox, the advantages are in the features, while the disadvantages are only minor quibbles. When you enumerate the features, Firefox wins hands down – at least for me.

So, my final ruling is Firefox wins this browser round. If Safari 4 can manage to fix the Flash freezes and remember cookies, Safari has a good chance of winning round 4. Until then, Firefox will remain my browser of choice.

I have to agree with John whole-heartily on this issue. Firefox 3 is generic cereal; while it may look like the name-brand cereal, the taste is horribly off. Firefox belongs on Windows, and I don’t think Mozilla can ever hide that fact.

Why Even Use Firefox?

That got me thinking, why should anyone use Firefox on the Mac? I mean, Safari is quite an amazing browser for being the default Mac browser. Safari has a mind-blowing user interface, is completely standards compliant (arguably better than Firefox), loads blazingly fast, and even includes some kick-ass web developer tools. Well, I think I have an answer: no one cares about that stuff.

The Voices in My Head

People have been trained over the years to despise Internet Explorer and embrace Firefox. I don’t think most people even know why they hate Internet Explorer; they’ve just been told by some geek in their life that Firefox is better and they should use that. When they make the switch to Mac, that sub-conscience kicks in and they feel the need to use Firefox.

Yesterday, my brother approached me and told me he hated Macs. Baffled by that statement, I pushed him for some reasoning. It turns out his school Macbooks have a really old version of Firefox (1.5) running on Leopard. There must be some bug in that configuration because the keyboard always freezes up on him. After hearing his reasoning, I simply told him to use Safari. He quickly responded, “Safari sucks”. Again baffled, I pressed him for a response. He couldn’t come up with one; he just assumed that every operating system’s default browser sucks and he should use Firefox.

I look back now, and when I first made the switch to OS X in 2005, I had the same knee-jerk reaction. Of course, back then Safari did kind of suck, especially on pages with heavy Javascript, but still; Safari was no where near the level of crappy-ness as Internet Explorer. I just assumed Firefox was the correct browser to use without ever giving Safari a try.

A Win-Win Situation

So, I’m not really sure what to make of this. Firefox certainly has a purpose on Macs; to offer an alternative, familiar experience to Windows users, while satisfying the power-user. And, Safari certainly has the short end of the stick; with many switchers passing over an amazing browser for a recognizable name.

I guess the true solution to this stalemate is just to be happy. I mean, this is a web geek’s dream. For once, people are using standards compliant browsers in mass numbers. The movement has become so noticeable that Microsoft has been forced to raise the bar on standards in Internet Explorer 8. A Mac user can’t go wrong; either option is a good one, and in the end as long the page displays correctly, that is all that should matter.

If you think IE7 is starting to make Firefox look weak, think again. On or around October 24th, Firefox 2.0 will be released. This new version packs just as much of a punch as IE7, and then some. Most notably, Firefox 2.0 will feature live spell checking, a phishing filter, and an updated interface. Haters of interface changes will be happy to hear that Firefox 2.0′s new interface is mainly functionality and visual enhancements. Nothing moved too far from its original position, unlike IE7.

I don’t know about you, but it’s a great time to be an internet user. Two new browsers, and loads of features. What more could a geek want? Vista? Leopard? Ah, yet another battle which is just starting to warm up. Which reminds me, Safari users won’t be out in the cold too long. A new version will be shipping with Leopard. Now go download those new browsers, it’s time for some surfing.

It’s real simple; we’re just going to tweak the following line of code:

javascript:self.resizeTo(A,B);self.moveTo(C,D);

In section A you’ll want to put a pixel value for the width of the browser window. In section B, place a pixel value for the height of the browser window. Next, in section C insert a pixel value for the distance of the browser window from the left side of your monitor. Finally, in section D stick in a value for the distance from the top of the monitor.

Now just create a new bookmark, putting the code you just tweaked in the address field. You can save the bookmark anywhere in your browser, but it’s helpful to have it on the bookmark toolbar. Now just click the bookmark and your browser will go to the same spot every time. It will probably take some tweaking until you get it right, as every browser handles those values a little differently. If you want a place to start, you can use my code. I did my bookmarks using Firefox for Mac.

Here’s my bookmarklet for my MacBook (1280×800):

javascript:self.resizeTo(1220,690);self.moveTo(30,12);

Here’s my bookmarklet for my 19″ LCD (1280×1024):

javascript:self.resizeTo(1220,835);self.moveTo(30,52);

If you’ve tweaked your code to perfection on other resolutions and browsers, feel free to share it in the comments. I’m sure others will appreciate it.

Safari

To start this article off, I figured you should know why I chose Safari in the first place. Well, it was the default browser once I installed Mac OS X, but that’s not the only reason why I came to use Safari. Safari has a great set of common web browsing features right out of the box. It has tabs, an RSS reader, and makes use of OS X features like spell check. Safari also has a number of extensions which add features like drag-able tabs.

Unfortunately, it also has a number of problems. Safari’s rendering engine isn’t completely up to par with other rendering engines. For example, sites like Google Calendar aren’t even usable in Safari. Safari also seems to get bogged down when a number of tabs are open. To make matters worse, Safari’s best extension, Saft, has the tendency to freeze Safari for several seconds on every new tab load.

Firefox

Since Safari wasn’t doing it for me, I figured I’d give my favorite Windows browser, Firefox, a try. Since Firefox is cross-platform, I was already familiar with Firefox’s great feature set. I was also familiar with the hundreds of Firefox extensions that could help make my web browsing experience even better. What I wasn’t familiar with was the number of problems the Mac Firefox has.

To start it off, Firefox for Mac does not exhibit the beautiful Mac OS interface. Firefox’s interface is rather clunky and feels unpolished. On top of that, Firefox’s scrolling speed is horrible on Mac. I’m hoping the problem lies with my hacked OS X version, since I can’t seem to figure out how a Mac user could handle the crawling speed of scrolling web pages. Luckily, if you put the crappy interface aside and can manage to scroll Firefox with ease, Firefox can be a great browser on Mac.

Camino

Next up on my list was the Mozilla Foundation’s Mac-only browser, Camino. Camino takes the power of Firefox’s rendering engine, Gecko, and adds the wonderful Mac OS interface to it. It performs in a similar manner to Firefox, but just adds that Mac experience to it. Similar to Firefox, Camino also has some extension capability, with CamiTools adding some of Firefox’s most popular extension features to Camino.

Unfortunately, Camino also has one drawback. There is no way at all to have a built in spell checker in Camino. That’s because it’s not a feature of Camino, and there is no extension currently which adds that functionality. While this may not be a problem for some, for a crappy speller like myself this is a huge problem. The good news is the Camino team is always working on improving the browser, and they’re looking to add native OS X spell checking sometime in the near future.

Shiira

After experiencing what the Mozilla Foundation had to offer, I figured I’d give some Mac-only browsers a try. Shiira was the first on my list. Like other Mac-only browsers, Shiira uses Mac OS’s built in rendering engine, WebKit. Think of it like the many IE clones available on Windows. Saying that should ring a bell. That means any problems with Safari’s rending engine also affects Shiira. Luckily, Safari’s rendering engine is fairly good, so that’s not too much of a problem. Beyond the engine, Shiira functions much like a beefed up Safari using Saft. All the power functionality is there, without the slowdowns of Safari.

Once again, no browser is perfect. Shiira’s interface really isn’t the best in my opinion. The address bar and the buttons seem out of proportion, leaving a weird feeling in your mind. Other than that, I didn’t find too many other problems with Shiira.

OmniWeb

Last on my list was the power Mac users favorite browser, OmniWeb. OmniWeb is another WebKit based browser, sporting the power functionality of a beefed up Safari. And, when I say power functionality, that’s not an understatement. OmniWeb has more features then you’ll probably use, and takes advantage of many of Mac OS X’s features, making it the most Mac-like browser out there.

You’d think with all the great functionality I mentioned, I would love OmniWeb. Unfortunately I don’t, and that’s because of one feature – tabs. OmniWeb’s tabs are a kind of thinking outside the box approach. Instead of displaying tabs as a horizontal list, OmniWeb displays thumbnails in a sidebar. While this may be a great feature for some, I have limited screen space, and a sidebar tabs list just uses too much of it. Besides the tabs, OmniWeb isn’t free. It costs $30, but is worth the money if you don’t mind the tabs. Just make sure you download the trial version first.

Opera

While Opera is another Mac OS browser choice, I didn’t test it. I’ve tried Opera on Windows several times in the past, and have always hated its interface. Something about it just irks me. So, if you can handle Opera’s interface, I’m sure it’s probably a viable browser alternative.

My Choice

One thing I’ve learned from all of this is no browser is perfect. Each and every browser has some flaw which turns me away. It’s just a matter of finding the browser with the least amount of these flaws, and coming up with solutions to deal with them.

So, with that said, I’ve chosen Camino to my browser of choice. While it doesn’t have spell checking, I can live without it. Sure, I might make spelling errors on some websites, but that’s better than living with a crappy web browser. Besides, Camino might be getting spell checking in the near future anyway.

On a final note, the decision between browser was a very close one. I’m sure if Safari would stop crashing, Firefox would work a little better, Shiira fixes the interface, or OmniWeb adds horizontal tabs, any of of those browsers could easily become my default one. With browser development continue to improve, I’m sure in the near future I will once again be faced with a browser decision, only without having to deal with major drawbacks.

Just this past weekend RSS has improved my internet life. I was away on a retreat Friday through Sunday and had no internet access, so I could not keep on top of my favorite websites. However when I returned my RSS reader had a record of everything that happened while I was gone.

Without RSS I would never be able to keep up with the amount of sites that I visit. I’m currently subscribed to 68 websites, and if I would have to check each and every one of those sites for updates, I would be spending half of the day. By subscribing to an RSS feed I know exactly when the site was updated, and what was added. If nothing of interest has been added, I can just skip over it, not wasting any time. And, it’s amazing what RSS feeds are available. I’m subscribed to everything from my friends’ Xangas to comics. Just about everything on the internet now has an RSS feed.

So all this sounds enticing, and you’re ready to start using the best thing to hit the Internet since, well, the internet. Well then, I’ve got good news for you. Almost all major browsers have RSS support built right in to them. The only exception being Internet Explorer, which does not currently have RSS support, but its next version will. To start using RSS all you have to do is (on most browsers) click the icon on the far right of the address bar (if that icon is available). You will then have the option to add that site’s RSS feed to your bookmarks, allowing you to just click that bookmark and get a list of all the new content on that site.

Now that works for most users, but let me tell you a secret. That’s not really RSS in all of its glory. To fully experience RSS you’ll need a client which works similar to an email client. What will happen is anytime a site is updated you’ll get a notification. The notification will contain the headline of the updated content along with a short excerpt (or a comic, for example). You’ll then have the option to go to the website and read the full article. This is where RSS really excels and allows you to save time because you’ll only be visiting sites with updated content.

Now there are a few ways to accomplish this. You can download a desktop client such as SharpReader or use the RSS support built into Thunderbird, but that’s not I would do. I use an online RSS client, Bloglines, to track my RSS feeds from anywhere; whether it be at school or at home, I can always see what websites have new content. To me this is the best solution since I’m not always using the same computer to browse websites. Sometimes I’m on my Mac, sometimes I’m on my Windows box, and other times I’m not even at home.

Regardless of what you choose to view RSS feeds, just start using them. They are a major timesaver and you’ll find yourself reading more websites in less time. So what are you waiting for? Start subscribing to RSS feeds like my own, for example.