Recently Apple released an Safari 4 Beta and I had to take it for a test drive.

I must say I am very impressed with it so far, Safari 4 beta:

• Loads almost instantly (no bouncy dock app)
• I am presented with a very beautiful screen showing my Top Sites (Apple should of made it clear that if you want to add top sites there was a quick bookmarking feature)

To add Top sites.. drag the url icon in the address bar from a separate window to the Top Sites Window.. while in edit mode.

• While in the top sites screen I can also navigate my history in coverflow mode
• The Tabs are at the top (very Chrome-like.. but still I prefer it, it shows more of the website)
• Page Rendering is very fast (I am on dial-up speed 56k – because I am capped, but pages load allmost instantly.. can’t wait to try it out on broadband)
• I do not like the fact that the refresh/ Stop button is on the right (I might get used to it)
• Passes the Acid 3 Test
• Many users have complained about the tabs/ navigating and how they prefer using the old classic tabs.. I think this is because many users tend to not know shortcut keys to switching tabs or have not customized their own personal shortcuts for safari.

I posted about this a while back, you can find out about Safari Keyboard Tab Switching

Continuing on..

• I am not a fan of the Spinning Loader (I would like to see the % or a bar indicating how much of the page is loaded)
• Not a fan of of Apple calling Safari 3 Innovative.. there isn’t much innovation at all.. they tried out chrome and found that tabs at the top is a good idea.. infact 90% of chrome users agreed that tabs at the top was the way to go.
• I think its about time you can import Bookmarks to safari.
• Glims works!
• Inquisitor does not
• Safari Adblock Works!

So there are some good things about a beta of Safari 4 and some bad.. I can see more promising features in the near future.