Big News: Apple's Safari to go live on Windows Platform - Beta Reviewed
The exclusive Mac OS browser Safari has been announced to be available for Windows Platform too by the Apple. With the release of Safari for Windows platform the browser war is going to be more intense as Safari without going on to Windows platform and restricting itself for Mac OS has already acquired 5% if the market share.
Apple has released the Beta version of Safari ( Download Safari here ) which comes up with an 8MB installer. Currently, you will have to provide your email address to Apple so that you are able to download it. Safari installation was blazing and it got installed in a minute without the need of restarting my computer such as in IE.
First Look: I have never worked with Safari as I have no Mac on my PC, so the first look at Safari made me to say "Wow! Safari you looks beautiful".
First Browsing Experience: Apple claims to be the faster than IE by upto 2 times and Firefox by 1.6 times. Well, when I browsed my first site over Safari. I found this claim of Apple as a reality. I can't provide the actual number of comparison between IE and Firefox and for which we will have to rely on Apple but Safari is faster than anything that I can guarantee you.
Plug-ins are ready to downloaded: I just looked at the Apple website and found that they are ready with the most wanted plug-ins such as Adobe Flash Player, Adobe Reader, Java etc. This ensures that you don't have any problems while you surf online and browse flash and java based websites.
Pop- Up blocking: Well almost every browser out there claims to have the capability of pop up blocking, but only few comes up to the expectation. So, I decided to test Safari for this. I knew a website that has lots of pop up and when I give it a try at the new Safari Browser, I found that it works really well as a pop-up blocker. It blocked almost every pop-up window which remains unblocked when I use IE and Firefox.
Tabbed Browsing: Tabbed Browsing a feature discovered by Firefox and what made Firefox popular has been provided in Safari. The shortcut for Tabbed browsing is same as in another browsers i.e. Ctrl+T.
Easy Bookmarks: Apple claims Safari to have an easy bookmark facility but I don't really agree with them. The bookmark facility of Safari is easier than that in IE but comparing it to Firefox its nowhere. You have to undergo a number of clicks in order to bookmark a page as compared to Firefox 2.0 in which you simply need to drag the tab into the bar.
Private Browsing: By far the most interesting and a feature that makes Safari different from others is Private Browsing. Well this lets intenet users to surf online without saving any session information such as History, auto fill data etc. into the browser's cache.
Integrated RSS: Apple Guys says that they have an integrated RSS in Safari which tells you whenever a new post is posted on your favorite blog. I still have to test this feature so for the time being we can simply rely on the Apple Guys words.
So the Apple has really taken a big leap in the browser war with Safari released for Windows platform - the most widely used. Safari has already claimed 5% market share and in my view that this act by Apple can do wonders to the Safari Browser raising its popularity among the Windows users. Now or later it is expected that Apple will integrate this Safari for Windows with their most downloaded iTunes software which can really boost up the market share of Safari and allow Apple to make some big leaps in the Browser War.
