What is Safari?

First available in January 2003 as a public beta, and released as version 1.0 in June 2003, Safari is the web browser developed by Apple, Inc., for Mac OS X. At its core is the Konqueror KHTML rendering engine, which has been further developed by Apple into the WebCore rendering engine and released back to the open source community. Safari is fully standards-compliant, and even supports some non-standard abilities and quirks from Internet Explorer. Beginning October 24, 2003, with the release of OS X 10.3 (Panther), Safari became the default web browser for OS X.

Features of Safari include:

Pop-up blocking and ad suppression

Blocking pop-up windows stops only pop-up windows that open when you open or close a page. It does not block pop-up windows that open when you click a link. To block pop-up windows, from the Safari menu, choose Block Pop-up Windows so that a checkmark appears next to it. For advanced users, Safari allows you to write a style sheet that will block advertising from specific banner advertising servers, which you can specify.

Tabbed browsing

With tabbed browsing enabled, you can open web pages in tabs rather than replacing the content of the current window or opening a separate window. When you open a page in a tab, the tab bar appears below the bookmarks bar. The name of the page appears in a tab in the tab bar. To turn on tabbed browsing, from the Safari menu, choose Preferences... , then click Tabs. Check the box next to Enable Tabbed Browsing.

SnapBack

The first page you open in a window is the SnapBack page. Safari remembers this page so you can quickly return to it after opening other web pages by clicking the SnapBack button in the address box. Each window has only one SnapBack page. To mark a new SnapBack page for a window, open the page and then, from the History menu, choose Mark Page for SnapBack.

Built-in Google search

A Google search field is built into the Safari toolbar, right next to the address bar. Recent Google searches are stored in the Google search history, which is available from a pull-down menu in the Google search field.

Greatly simplified organization of bookmarks and history

The Bookmarks Library allows you to organize your bookmarks in a fashion very similar to the organizational scheme of iTunes or iPhoto, by grouping your bookmarks into easily managed collections. Your history of recently visited sites is also easily accessible through the Bookmarks Library.

Auto-completion of web forms

Safari can use information from your Address Book card or from previous forms to complete forms you need to fill out in web pages. Safari also gives you a separate option for auto-completion of your account usernames and passwords, stored securely in the Mac OS X Keychain. Use the AutoFill pane of Safari preferences to select which information Safari uses.

Safari reset

If you use a shared or public computer, you may want to reset Safari to protect your privacy. In a single step, resetting Safari clears the history, empties the cache, clears the downloads window, and removes all cookies. It also removes any saved usernames and passwords and other AutoFill data, and clears Google search entries. To reset Safari, from the Safari menu, select Reset Safari... .

Also see:

• Why does my web page look different when I use different computers and web browsers?
• For Mac OS X, what web browsers are available?