Apple says Safari 4's 150 features are "leading the way with innovation," but in reality they're all things we've used before in other browsers—with Cupertino's magic aesthetic touch thrown in. Let's take a look at Safari's headliner features, what other browsers already have them, and how Safari's offering differentiates itself. (To follow along, download the public Safari 4 beta for Mac or Windows. Since most publications are testing the Mac version, I used the Windows version to do my review and take screenshots.)
Fans of Opera's Speed Dial and Google Chrome will say that Safari 4's "Top Sites" page looks awfully familiar. Like Chrome, Top Sites shows a thumbnail grid of web sites you've visited based on frequency, which changes as your browser history does over time.
The one thing Safari 4 has that no other browser does (by default at least) is something Mac users are used to: Cover Flow view, which now displays web page previews instead of just album art (iTunes) or file previews (like in Finder). Go into bookmark view (hit the bookmarks button next to the Top Sites grid button on your toolbar) to flip through your history, bookmarks, or search results Cover Flow style. Still, Firefox users can get a very similar interface with the previously mentioned FoxTab extension.
Here's what dragging a tab out of a window in Safari looks like; this is the one visual effect where Chrome (which offers a larger page preview during the drag action) actually does a nicer job.
Safari 4 Is Not Ready for Everyday Usage
All the good-lookin' features aside, in my one day of testing, Safari 4 reminded me several times that it's not kidding about that "beta" label. Safari 4 is still super-crashy, so while it's certainly worth a test drive, it's got a long way to go in the stability department
Lifehacker
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