Do Windows users want to experience the Web as Apple owners do? In the Windows world, there's seemingly little demand for an Apple-flavored Web browser. But nonetheless, Apple will soon release Safari 3 for Windows.
With this move, Apple probably has plans to improve the use of iTunes for Windows users, as well as support iPhone and perhaps take a bite of the business market. In short, Safari for Windows is a strategic step towards a future.
While Safari appears to offer little of note when compared against the current crop of Windows browsers, it certainly holds its own as a competent "me-too" browser. We reviewed a pre-release, beta version of Safari 3.
Speed Too
Interestingly, Apple's primary emphasis isn't on Safari's elegant, Mac-style interface but rather its speed. Apple says that Safari loads pages up to two times faster than Internet Explorer 7 and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox 2, while also executing JavaScript up to 2.8 times faster than Internet Explorer and up to 1.6 times faster than Firefox.
In testing, speed differences between Internet Explorer and Safari were negligible when averaged over many visits. Of course, Safari is still in beta and speed is likely to change when the software is ultimately released.
Interface
If Safari's designers strove to create a Windows Web browser that looked as though it were running on a Mac, they succeeded. The one-pixel wide browser frame offers a clean, attractive look. Other pluses, Safari's scroll bar only appears when you need it and a blue progress bar fills the address field as pages load, both of which maximize screen space.
Bookmarking has been implemented efficiently and effectively as well. A single click allows you to browse, search, and organize bookmarks and Safari imports bookmarks from browsers that you've been using.
A slick Find command lets you quickly locate text on a Web page. Type a word into the integrated Find banner and Safari highlights the terms while dimming the rest of the text.
As with Firefox and IE7, tabbed browsing in Safari allows you to open and switch between multiple Web pages in a single window. You can drag and drop tabs to rearrange them, open one in a new browser window, or merge current windows into a single tabbed window. And if you like, you can create a bookmark that brings up a particular set of tabs.
So you don't lose your way on the Web, a useful SnapBack feature instantly navigates you back to the top level of any Website or original search results. This way, when you're visiting your favorite site — Winplanet.com, for example — you can read all of the stories and investigate their links and immediately return to the front page when you want to. The SnapBack feature also allows for the creation of "anchor points" that you can return to at later points in time.
While the interface looks great, Windows users may be irritated by some differences. For example, you can only resize windows by holding down a corner and not the sides, a Mac convention. And clicking address fields does not select an entire address but places the cursor at the end of the URL address. Interestingly, while Safari offers a "home" button, it's not set to appear by default.
