While Firefox may be an excellent browser for a large number of reasons, in time I have started using Safari more and more. The excellent support for standards, fast rendering capability and complete Mac OS X integration make it my first choice on Apple’s platform. However, I still like to have a bit more control over browsing than either vanilla Firefox or plain Safari offer, so here’s what’s extra on my machine¹. Mac OS X only.

Plugins

For Safari I do not need as many plugins as I used to have on Firefox, partly because I can get most of that functionality with fewer things installed.

1. SIMBL is the way to add functionality to Safari, as it provides 3rd party software with a (kind of) plugin loader interface. You need to install it first if you see anything you like in this list.
2. SafariStand allows me to use quick search keys and the excellent History Flow (screenshot). It is much faster to remember “what site that was” if you can see a general outline of what it looked like, not just the URL. As for quick search, they are equivalent to Firefox’s keymarks and work in the very same way. Very fast browsing.
3. SafariBlock does for Safari what AdBlock does for Firefox. It even uses pretty much the same lists and makes it trivial to add entries and block even more things. Have the Internet as you want it.²

Browsing Style

My browsing habits are pretty much the same now as they were when I wrote about supercharging Firefox, thanks to the quick search feature provided by SafariStand. Type in
w jeux d'enfants
to search Wikipedia for “Jeux d’Enfants”³ Cmd + L to jump to the address bar, Cmd + T for a new tab, Cmd + W to close the current tab. Cmd + Shift + ←/→ to switch between tabs. Three-finger swipe left to go to the previous page⁴.

Another important feature for me is automatic categorization of downloads, and I use Leech for that, as it comes with a Safari plugin to do just that. Leech will intercept downloads from Safari and put them where you tell it to, or you can configure Hazel to get you almost the same functionality, sans Safari plugin.

May Also Want to Try…

I don’t use everything that’s under the sun. Depending on your very own browsing style, the plugins below may also be useful to you:

1. Saft has some overlap with SafariStand, though it does do quite a few other useful things (kiosk mode, bad site warnings). It is a highly-acclaimed extension to Safari.
2. Inquisitor gives Safari’s searchbar the same “Suggestion” feature that comes by default in Firefox. I don’t use it since I have a keymark for searches, but it would be quite useful otherwise.

Last and not least, if you don’t mind the occasional memory leak or browser crash, I suggest using WebKit nightlies. These will give you the ‘bleeding edge’, complete with new JavaScript engine and all the features you are most likely to see once Safari 4 is launched. All the above still holds if you use the nightlies.

1. DISCLAIMER: Safari does not have an official plugin mechanism, the way Firefox does. While all the things I am recommending here have served me flawlessly over time, you should be aware that they may stop working after browser updates — albeit if only for a short period of time [↩]
2. Unfortunately, it is not as easy to unblock items on pages where you may want to actually see the ads [↩]
3. Where there are no disambiguations, Wikipedia will take you straight to the page you are looking for, so this is a very fast way of finding information. [↩]
4. Only on the new MBP or the MBA [↩]