From Chrome to Safari - Advice.

[Autokon]

I've been a Mac user for over 10 years now, but I've never fully transitioned over to Safari. I'm interested in making such a change mainly due to Google's inability to give a poop about Chrome's memory management. While I'll keep it as a side browser, I'd like to move fully to using Safari. Plus, with my entire Apple ecosystem, it just makes sense.

Simply - What are some good suggestions/extensions to make Safari the best it possibly can? Even some suggestions for setup and added productivity would be nice. I'm quite the Safari newb I fear.

Current Extensions: 1Password, PushBullet, Gmail Notifier, Pocket, Ublock (WAY better than Adblock plus, etc)

 

[TheralSadurns]

The only other extension I would recommend is Ultimate Status Bar which gives you a Chrome-like dynamically shown statusbar.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Two extensions:

1. AdBlock. I guess you have used it or AdBlock Plus on Chrome.
2. ZoomBySite. It remembers the zoom settings for all sites individually.

 

[Lankyman]

I've been a Mac user for over 10 years now, but I've never fully transitioned over to Safari. I'm interested in making such a change mainly due to Google's inability to give a poop about Chrome's memory management. While I'll keep it as a side browser, I'd like to move fully to using Safari. Plus, with my entire Apple ecosystem, it just makes sense.

Simply - What are some good suggestions/extensions to make Safari the best it possibly can? Even some suggestions for setup and added productivity would be nice. I'm quite the Safari newb I fear.

Current Extensions: 1Password, PushBullet, Gmail Notifier, Pocket, Ublock (WAY better than Adblock plus, etc)

Don't do it - Safari is to slow to die sudden, it's like going back to IE. It wasn't good a decade ago and it's not good now.

I have renamed it on my machine to the 'browser of last resort'.

 

[Taz Mangus]

Don't do it - Safari is to slow to die sudden, it's like going back to IE. It wasn't good a decade ago and it's not good now.

I have renamed it on my machine to the 'browser of last resort'.

Not my experience. Of all the OS X releases I have used, and I have been using OS X a long time, Safari 8 is by far the fastest.

Have you tried dragging your user account Library/Caches to the trash and rebooting.

 

[Lankyman]

Not my experience. Of all the OS X releases I have used, and I have been using OS X a long time, Safari 8 is by far the fastest.

Have you tried dragging your user account Library/Caches to the trash and rebooting.

I've tried everything over the years. TBH it simply cannot compete with the likes of Chrome and FF. For me it's the whole user experience and I'm afraid on a box ticking list Safari just doesn't do it for me.

 

[Taz Mangus]

I've tried everything over the years. TBH it simply cannot compete with the likes of Chrome and FF. For me it's the whole user experience and I'm afraid on a box ticking list Safari just doesn't do it for me.

Interesting because my experience on all my Macs running 10.10.3 Safari seems to run better then even Firefox and Chrome. My wife even indicated as much to me the other day.

 

[fisherking]

i like chrome, runs well here. but i only use it sometimes, and only when my macbook pro is plugged in..

safari is, for me, the best browser on os x; fast, efficient, stable.
an adblocker, and zoombysite are great extensions...

 

[Lankyman]

i like chrome, runs well here. but i only use it sometimes, and only when my macbook pro is plugged in..

safari is, for me, the best browser on os x; fast, efficient, stable.
an adblocker, and zoombysite are great extensions...

You see I don't use Magic Mouse or Trackpad, (Apple has never been able to design an ergonomic mouse) so no swiping or gestures for me. If you take that away then Safari is simply a bog standard browser and fails to shine compared to the opposition.

I use Gmail for email with Post Box as the client and have an Android phone (Sony) which I prefer to an iPhone. Therefore Google and Chrome integrates much better and provides a better user experience for me.

In fact the Photo app in OS X which I rather foolishly clicked on has worsened still further the Apple experience. Which numpty decided this is a better user experience than iPhoto?

 

[Taz Mangus]

i like chrome, runs well here. but i only use it sometimes, and only when my macbook pro is plugged in..

safari is, for me, the best browser on os x; fast, efficient, stable.
an adblocker, and zoombysite are great extensions...

The only time I use Chrome is when I need to visit a website that requires flash. I wonder what the differences are between Ghostery and Adblocker.

 

[Wheelie4]

Might I suggest:

ClickToFlash or ClickToPlugin to block or manage flash on websites.

And as an alternative might I suggest trying "Adguard" Ad blocker extension as an alternative to "ublock", "adblock" or "adblockplus". I just started using it a couple days ago and I've used the alternatives mentioned and "Adguard" seems to do just as good a job and slightly even better. And as the others sometimes would want to slow Safari ever so slightly when beginning to load a page this extension doesn't seem to do that.

 

[Ulenspiegel]

Ghostery and AdBlock Plus partially overlap, but they address different issues regarding privacy and security. Ghostery blocks trackers.

 

[Badagri]

Adblock can be a bit of a hog to Safari.

 

[oneshotpro]

I had to switch back to chrome after exclusively using safari...as apple has decided video doesnt matter and on most sites you get plug in errors instead of safari switching it to a html5 version.


unfortunately, chrome on ios crashes much too often so still use Safari on iphone.

 

[Autokon]

Lot's of great stuff here.

I'll always keep Chrome on hand. In fact, for my career (Marketing/IT), I'll still use it quite often due to the vast extension support. However, for everyday casual web surfing, I'll be switching to the more efficient, Safari.

And for those suggesting Adblock/Adblock Plus, give UBlock a try. It's significantly better than Adblock/Adblock Plus. It's much lighter weight and efficient with memory/cpu management.

 

[crashoverride77]

I've been a Mac user for over 10 years now, but I've never fully transitioned over to Safari. I'm interested in making such a change mainly due to Google's inability to give a poop about Chrome's memory management. While I'll keep it as a side browser, I'd like to move fully to using Safari. Plus, with my entire Apple ecosystem, it just makes sense.

Simply - What are some good suggestions/extensions to make Safari the best it possibly can? Even some suggestions for setup and added productivity would be nice. I'm quite the Safari newb I fear.

Current Extensions: 1Password, PushBullet, Gmail Notifier, Pocket, Ublock (WAY better than Adblock plus, etc)

browser choice is quite easy these days in my opinion.

Chrome
-fast and if you need extensions or live in the google ecosystem, be it Android or web apps, than its a must.
-However its inefficient, battery killing, most vunerable to securities (according to recent tests) and most importantly its from GOOGLE, the biggest add company in the world.

Internet Explorer
-actually pretty good these days but still can't shake its bad rep. Thats why Microsoft is releasing Spartan. So Meh

Firefox
-the most bloated and slow browser around. Don't get Nostalgic with it, its 2015 and firefox sucks.

Safari
-sleek, fast, efficient, battery friendly and up there in security.
-It SUCKS for extensions tho, by far the worst.

I think thats quite a fair assessment. If you have a Mac than Safari for the win by far (unless extensions dependant) and if you have a PC than Chrome by far. Easy

 

[crashoverride77]

Don't do it - Safari is to slow to die sudden, it's like going back to IE. It wasn't good a decade ago and it's not good now.

I have renamed it on my machine to the 'browser of last resort'.

delusional much?

 

[soloer]

Firefox
-the most bloated and slow browser around. Don't get Nostalgic with it, its 2015 and firefox sucks.

Have you actually used Firefox in the past few months or are you just reciting old talking points? I give Safari a chance now and then to remind myself how good my battery life can be, but stick with Firefox as I don't really see a speed difference.

 

[crashoverride77]

Have you actually used Firefox in the past few months or are you just reciting old talking points? I give Safari a chance now and then to remind myself how good my battery life can be, but stick with Firefox as I don't really see a speed difference.

I have used it 2 months ago for a FlashPlayer plugin extension but deleted it after 2 days and just installed Flash on my Mac.
It looks ancient and doesn't even have a unified search bar yet. It is also a system hog, battery eater and defiantly not as fast as the new Safari. I used Firefox for years back in the Windows days and its tragic what a piece of bloatware it became and how far it fell off compared to Safari, Chrome and even Internet Explorer in some respects.
I fully understand that Safari is a piece of **** when it comes to extensions, however I don't use extensions at all except AdBlock. For everything else browsing related, Safari smokes them all in my opinion. Lets also not forget that Safari is pretty innovative, which I like

 

[KALLT]

Have a look at Apple’s extension gallery (Safari > Safari Extensions…), there are lots of good ones there. It is difficult to tell what will be useful to you, but I can tell you what I have:
• NoMoreiTunes prevents Safari from automatically launching iTunes whenever you click on an iTunes Store or App Store link. I found that behaviour so infuriating, so this extension is a blessing.
• Text2Link allows you to click on plain-text URLs that are not formatted as links.
• Link Text Selector allows you to select/copy the text of a link. Previously I had to select a whole sentence instead when I wanted to copy the text, so this is a wee time-saver.
• MailTo will open e-mail links in your preferred web mail client instead of your mail app.
• YouTubeWide will change the default YouTube player to the larger one. I clear my cookies often and I prefer the larger player.
• DisableGoogleRedirect removes the hidden redirects on Google Search. Whenever you click on a search result, you are in fact clicking on a redirect link that gives Google feedback on your clicking behaviour. Disabling it can be better for your privacy.
• Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on removes Google’s advertising plugins from websites you visit. Always better for your privacy. You might not need this if you use Ghostery or another privacy blocker though.

 

[Liam555]

I think thats quite a fair assessment. If you have a Mac than Safari for the win by far (unless extensions dependant) and if you have a PC than Chrome by far. Easy

I couldn't agree more. The only things stopping me from jumping to safari is the bookmarks. They're really hard to use in safari, and you can't middle click to open them in a new tab. Also youtube in safari doesn't work with the extension I use and bugs up. If they made bookmarks more like Chrome, i'd definitely switch over.

 

[crashoverride77]

I couldn't agree more. The only things stopping me from jumping to safari is the bookmarks. They're really hard to use in safari, and you can't middle click to open them in a new tab. Also youtube in safari doesn't work with the extension I use and bugs up. If they made bookmarks more like Chrome, i'd definitely switch over.

You can right click bookmarks and Readings Lists in Safaris sidebar and open them in a new tab, the sidebar option is always there.
In the new Safari you will also see bookmarks when you click the URL/Search bar (or you can restore the bookmarks bar if preferred) and all those can also be right clicked and opened in a new tab so I am not really sure what you mean.
I love how safari handles bookmarks and one click reading lists in the sidebar. I also like how my bookmarks show like they do in iOS so I think it couldn't be more straight forward or simplistic. What exactly does Chrome that you like. I don't know because I wouldn't put Chrome on my Mac, even under duress. The only thing that I don't really like in Safari is how tabs don't show the website logo like other browsers do, however since this has been beaten to death I won't talk further about it

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Have a look at Apple’s extension gallery (Safari > Safari Extensions…), there are lots of good ones there. It is difficult to tell what will be useful to you, but I can tell you what I have:
• NoMoreiTunes prevents Safari from automatically launching iTunes whenever you click on an iTunes Store or App Store link. I found that behaviour so infuriating, so this extension is a blessing.
• Text2Link allows you to click on plain-text URLs that are not formatted as links.
• Link Text Selector allows you to select/copy the text of a link. Previously I had to select a whole sentence instead when I wanted to copy the text, so this is a wee time-saver.
• MailTo will open e-mail links in your preferred web mail client instead of your mail app.
• YouTubeWide will change the default YouTube player to the larger one. I clear my cookies often and I prefer the larger player.
• DisableGoogleRedirect removes the hidden redirects on Google Search. Whenever you click on a search result, you are in fact clicking on a redirect link that gives Google feedback on your clicking behaviour. Disabling it can be better for your privacy.
• Google Analytics Opt-out Browser Add-on removes Google’s advertising plugins from websites you visit. Always better for your privacy. You might not need this if you use Ghostery or another privacy blocker though.

Thanks for sharing these, some of them sound very useful. I never check the Safari extension website because I normally end up crying. Hopefully they keep adding more and more because its Safaris only major flaw I think.

 

[Badagri]

I have used it 2 months ago for a FlashPlayer plugin extension but deleted it after 2 days and just installed Flash on my Mac.
It looks ancient and doesn't even have a unified search bar yet. It is also a system hog, battery eater and defiantly not as fast as the new Safari. I used Firefox for years back in the Windows days and its tragic what a piece of bloatware it became and how far it fell off compared to Safari, Chrome and even Internet Explorer in some respects.
I fully understand that Safari is a piece of **** when it comes to extensions, however I don't use extensions at all except AdBlock. For everything else browsing related, Safari smokes them all in my opinion. Lets also not forget that Safari is pretty innovative, which I like

Are you sure about that?

 

[Liam555]

You can right click bookmarks and Readings Lists in Safaris sidebar and open them in a new tab, the sidebar option is always there.
In the new Safari you will also see bookmarks when you click the URL/Search bar (or you can restore the bookmarks bar if preferred) and all those can also be right clicked and opened in a new tab so I am not really sure what you mean.
I love how safari handles bookmarks and one click reading lists in the sidebar. I also like how my bookmarks show like they do in iOS so I think it couldn't be more straight forward or simplistic. What exactly does Chrome that you like. I don't know because I wouldn't put Chrome on my Mac, even under duress. The only thing that I don't really like in Safari is how tabs don't show the website logo like other browsers do, however since this has been beaten to death I won't talk further about it

They really need to add middle click instead of right click. I open a lot of bookmarks and having to click twice to open it is a nightmare. Also opening multiple bookmarks by right clicking a folder removes any open tabs and replaces them with the ones in a folder. On chrome, they just open the bookmarks in new tabs instead of removing the current ones.

 

[crashoverride77]

Are you sure about that?

Yes, judging by pictures of the latest version.
It doesn't even have a reading list although they did finally add that in the latest beta and are also working on a unified search bar.
Just look tho at that ancient UI and gigantic menu/search/tab bar. In its current form it just sucks and has for years.