IT Pro Verdict

Extensions are so new to Safari that they don’t provide a convincing reason to switch right now. Right now it's Reader that has the biggest impact on your reading. Even speed isn't significantly different to Chrome, though that's a virtue that makes Safari 5 worth checking out if you've discounted previous versions as being too slow with rich internet applications. Safari is a much better browser for Windows. But we can't really see an overwhelming reason to switch to it on Windows, especially when its most notable feature can be had in other browsers through a bookmark.

By Alan Stonebridge

Published 23 June 2010 In Reviews

At least the dialog presents an obvious counter of updates that are waiting to be installed, which can be done individually or in one fell swoop, and automatically if you elect to tick that box. Still, the dialog really needs to sport better organisation tools if it's to avoid annoying you.

Search options

Even though extensions add the possibility of replacing enhancing, Safari's limited search options will make you sick to your stomach. Apple touts "even more search options with built-in Bing search." That's one extra option in addition to Google and Yahoo. A measly total of three, and though that includes the poster-child of internet search, Apple hasn't conceded ground on allowing you to switch to a regionalised version of Google.

Nor can you customise the list of search engines to add it or any others you want to use, as you can in Firefox. Apple may be concerned about malicious code injection, or it may see this as the domain of extensions, which should help limit such security implications thanks to their being sandboxed. A fully customisable search extension to replace the built-in search bar looks like your best hope. Or you can stick with Firefox.