Safari 3.1

Like many folks last week, an iTunes update popped up and I automatically clicked the install button only to be shocked that a Safari browser icon now sat on my desktop.

I've gotten used to the mini-Safari on my iPhone, but, living in a PC world, I'm rarely exposed to it's full brother. Being the browser-curious lad I am, I imported my bookmarks from Firefox and decided to use it for a week.

My initial impression wasn't great. It looks very grey and plain. I hadn't noticed how Firefox and IE color schemes really pop the text out. Safari seems to make it want to disappear into a utilitarian, flat grey. (It looks much better on a Mac, in my opinion.)

Appearances aside, after a week of using it, I find it to be a solid browser. It seems to handle standards as well as Firefox and better than Opera. It seems a little faster in most areas than Firefox. It's far better than IE for me, but I'd generally rather send snail mail than use Internet Explorer.

The down side is that it doesn't have add ons. Firefox's add ons take a good browser and make it great. A minor point is that there's something odd about the fonts it displays, they seem a little fuzzy around the edges, to me.

Overall a solid browser, but not enough to sway me from Firefox.