What one feature of Apple's Safari browser do you prefer over Firefox?

On my PCs, FireFox is my browser of choice. (duh)

On the Mac, I continue to use Safari... but I'm getting close to switching. Safari is a fantastic browser, but there are a few things in FireFox that I have grown accustomed to, and their absense on the Mac is starting to wear thin.

The biggest thing missing from Safari is plugins. I don't need the "IEView" plugin on the Mac as much as I do on the PC, but I greatly miss the "copy plain text" plugin.

And my biggest Safari peeve? Firefox will warn you of you accidentally (reflex, usually) close an entire window with other tabs still open, while Safari immediately shuts the window and all the other open tabs go away. I can't tell you how many times I have inadvertently closed the entire window instead of just the tab I was done with, and lost a lot of research time trying to reassemble the links I had opened. This feature of firefox used to be a plugin, but seems to be built in, now. If Safari supported plugins, it could be added by third parties even if Apple did not want to "clutter" the main, default installation with this feature.

I am not using Firefox for a couple of reasons.

I also like to run Safari in a minimal toolbar mode, using as much space as possible for the page. Firefox's buttons are tall and colored instead of gray, insisting on being present and noticed much more than Safari's. I don't have time to go browsing through themes.

More importantly, and your article touched on this, is Safari's integration with the rest of the Mac OS. Safari's spell checker is simply the OS X spell checker accessed by Safari. More important to me is Keychain. When Safari encounters an HTTPS page and the Keychain has timed out, it won't fill in the password field until I enter my Keychain password. When Firefox is in this situation, it will pre-fill the password field if I saved it. While Firefox obscures the password, it's entered, so anyone can still walk up to my machine and log into my HTTPS accounts just by going to a login page. I consider this to be a security hole compared to the Safari/Keychain setup.

For now I run Safari and Firefox as needed, because Safari isn't perfect either. It won't properly run some sites, which are fine in Firefox.

Thanks for mentioning this item as I had no idea.

My favorite feature, before you mentioned this one, is the close button on each tab. This way you can close a tab even if it is not open. Firefox has that one close tab button way on the right. Annoying.

I also adore the right click of a menu bar folder which opens all the items in that folder into separate tabs (oh this is great, i didn't even have to know how to spell 'seperate', Safari told me) That is assuming you have a two button mouse and the right click is set for Cmd-Click: open link in new tab.

And by far the greatest single feature that Safari has over Firefox is its ability to ignore the error messages NetSuite gives when you place in code it doesn't like. Useful for bypassing it's kludgy code base to roll-your-own. Firefox says 'Yes Mr. NetSuite, I'm sorry I thought I know more than you do." and quakes in its boots. Safari says, "Oh thank you for the warning, but that's what I meant to do, " (under its breath "...you dweeb"), and then ignores any further complaints.

Finally, with Quartz Extreme Safari looks A LOT better.

Safari does support third party plug-ins, Compudude. On my system, for example, I have the way cool PDF Browser plugin (see http://www.schubert-it.com/ ). You can see what plug-ins you have installed by choosing Help -> Show Plug-Ins while in Safari.

The plug-ins viewable by the "Installed Plug-Ins" menu item are not really plug-ins in the same sense as Firefox extensions are, though. They're generally content, e.g. a plug-in might support Flash, or Java, or another sort of content. Firefox's extensions, by contrast, typically extend the working of it.

There are some plug-ins that have been made with e.g. SIMBL or other InputManager bundles, including the excellent Sogudi and Saft. These load themselves into Safari specifically and alter its functionality.

Unfortunately, it's not sanctioned, and it's not as clean as a proper API for extensions to the user experience. I for one would welcome Firefox extension compatibility, or even a separate but still workable API.

Have you looked at Camino? I don't know if this particular feature is implemented there, but in general it's extremely well integrated with Mac OS X. (It has Keychain support, for example, and uses native widgets.) Unfortunately, it uses an older Gecko than Firefox and Mozilla Suite, but it's not too bad.

I spend a lot of time testing sites in emulated Macs with PearPC. There, Camino's much faster than Firefox; as far as I can tell, the fact that Camino uses OS X widgets while Firefox rolls its own gives it a huge speed boost. (Plus, it's much prettier...)

Camino is definitely nice, it's one of the browsers I have on my main computer, but there's a sort of momentum factor with applications and Camino is just an 'also ran' for me, so I can't get too enthusiastic. Really, even with all the problems and complications, Safari is still my browser of choice with Firefox my #2.

Great spell-checking plugin for Firefox:
http://spellbound.sourceforge.net/

Right-click on any form's text areas and there's a "check spelling" option. Not quite as slick as the Safari one, but nice for any longish amount of prose.

I have no problem with safari other than the horrible way it displays submit and reset inputs on forms. Yes, they're pretty, but say I want to style my submit button or the background and borders of my textbox and text inputs, safari makes it an ugly pain in the butt.

Speedwise safari is much faster than firefox on the mac and swf files at hight framerates seem to kill firefox quite often.

But it's the firefox extensions that make it indispensable. I can't get any work done withough Chris Pederic's WebDeveloper, and the Aardvark extensions.

I was wondering if you could offer me a straight answer (no technical mumbo-jumbo) to my questions about java not operating properly in any browsers on OS 10.3.9... I love my new OS X and am very happy with Safari (Firefox is so slow I'd need a padded room to use it) but when I try to play cards at gamecolony.com I get a java window that says "session expired" or other various error messages, problems, etc. I just ordered a DSL upgrade from my earthlink dial up service which will be installed in a week or so - will that help? I've tried installing the java upgrade which is supposed to fix the bugs - but didn't do ANYTHING....
I have to use IE in the classic environment when I want to play some cards and java doesn't really work all that well there either - plus it bothers me immensely that I don't get to use my new OS for my playtime! I finally splurged on this upgrade and my favorite site isn't working on it. What's the deal?

No technical mumbo-jumbo: I have no idea why your Java subsystem would be messed up. Have you tried running Software Update frmo your Apple menu to ensure everything's up to date, then running "repair permissions" on your disk within Disk Utility from Applications -> Utilities to see if that fixes the problem?

Thank you for the straight answer (finally!)... You wouldn't believe the amount of content that pops up on a search engine when you bring up Mac - especially OS X - and java...
So, I upgraded all of my software from software update and per your suggestion repaired permissions with disk utility (apparently there were some adjustments that needed to be made). But still the same problems...
I should let you know that java works very well at iPlay.com - the problems I have are at my favorite gaming site www.gamecolony.com - when the java window is launched I still get "session expired - please reloggin" in Safari and Firefox and in IE 5.2 everything works great until I make my first move in a card game - then I have to force quit because the curser starts spinning and doesn't stop. Ever. And nothing else works in the application once it starts spinning.
And now on top of everything else, I just upgraded to DSL (heaven) and when I try to use IE both in the classic and OS X environment I seem to be behind a firewall (whatever that means) and no matter what I do in IE preferences and system preferences, I can't bypass this new and uninvited proxy 'thing' that planted itself in my application!
Any pearls???

I had switched to Firefox a few months ago, still running 10.3.9 (for Virtual PC compatibility reasons). Now that I'm over to Tiger, I'm back to Safari. Why? RSS. Sage is a lousy interface, and has no auto-updating of feeds. Safari, by contrast, allows me to get NetNewsWireLite out of my dock, finally. As has been noted, Safari's speed and integration with the OS are big pluses.

Finally, except for Aardvark, I realized that the only Firefox extensions I had installed were being used to make it more like Safari—keyconfig for command-shift-right- and left-arrow (tab switching) and command-up- and down-arrow (so I don't have to use the fn key for home and end on my powerbook), Tab X for individual close buttons on tabs, User Agent Switcher and DOM inspector to replace some of Safari's debug menu, and so on.

Those extensions that were NOT meant solely to Safarify my Firefox installation I never quite got around to using—flickrfox, del.icio.us, and so on. Somehow the bookmarkets just work better in both browsers.

I do wish there could be an Aardvark plug-in for Safari, but as has been mentioned, plug-ins themselves don't quite support that kind of functionality.

Like so many before me, I too have struggled with the FireFox, Safari, Camino debate. When I first got my new Macbook I tried out Safari and wasn't thrilled with it. I am a Windows convert and wasn't really sure what I was looking at. So, I downloaded Firefox, but it seemed to have the same kludgy interface as firefox in Windows. But I preferred it in windows for security reasons. Shortly thereafter, I found Camino and was happy. I used Camino for a very long time. The main reason was that it integrated seamlessly with Keychain. But, having forgotten why I stopped using Safari, I went back to it and used it for a few more months. Now we get to where I have some clue about what I like about each.

Safari definitely holds the candle when it comes to OS integration. Hell, every other tool that uses a media browser references Safari bookmarks, not Camino or Firefox. The keychain is the best tool to come standard on OSX and having that work flawlessly with Safari made it a big plus. However, I am disappointed that Safari isn't compatible with many sites. It does lack in form fills, and it certainly isn't as widespread as IE or Firefox. One last note on Keychain, it only saves web passwords to your login keychain. If you are a neatnik with special keychains for everything, you'll be disappointed that your login gets cluttered with every new site you sign up with.

Camino also has keychain integration, the same as Safari, unfortunately. Camino is prettier in my opinion, or, at least you can download any number of themes for it. I've also downloaded some extensions to the browser. One tool that is really neat is CamiTools. Within this is a huge set of options you can change about Camino, including one which will lie to the server about what browser you are using. I've actually used this to make it think I was using IE for compatibility purposes. Alas, Camino is dead in the water as it's just not being updated frequently enough and since it's OSX only there are far less people working on plugins.

Firefox has the one advantage that it is on many platforms. There are thousands of different plugins, themes, etc for firefox. It does seem to lack in areas as stated above, but the main reason I'm using it now (and it's a stupid reason) is that when I go to bookmark a site, I have the option to make a new folder. Neither Safari or Camino have this ability. I have to manage bookmarks first in both and create a folder, then go back to my page and add it. This is a huge annoyance for me, especially since I have to file everything. I also like firefox because it is on so many platforms, more webpages are being built to work well with it. There are less and less IE only pages out there, and even fewer optimized for Safari. But Firefox can go almost anywhere and work flawlessly. Lastly, it doesn't have keychain access, but there is a tool that can add it called 1Passwd. Why pay $30 for it, I don't know. It's probably not worth that. But the tool is out there, it's only a matter of time before others make similar tools at a much more modest price. As far as speed is concerned, I tried comparing the three. What difference there is, is barely noticeable. Also, I just noticed that I misspelled noticeable and Firefox underlined it in squiggly red lines, how about that.

I could not tell anyone what browser is best, that is very personal. You might be a minimalist and prefer the look of safari. You might be a plugin junkie and prefer firefox. You might be a purist and prefer natural OS integration. Or, you might be an accessorizer, demanding as much from your browser as can possibly be imagined.

For me, I like the simple look of Safari, but I can get a skin for that. What I don't like is having to take extra steps for anything such as bookmarking. If I have to spend a few minutes getting a plugin, to never have to do it or whatever the plugin fixed again, it's worth it to me. I like working with software that is highly supported and constantly being improved. It is for all these reasons that I like Firefox. For any thing it doesn't do, there will be a fix. Safari improvements are too slow for my tastes.

i just switched to mac a couple months ago - up until then i was firefox all the way. on my mac though i loved everything about safari. my favorite by far feature of safari is the way autocomplete works. in firefox it autocompletes but there's that extra step to select what ff has given as options. in safari it just autocompletes right on the line.
suddenly though i am having major issues, i have been searching online for the last hour and done everything my help menu says to do (turned on all autofill, checked permissions, etc) and my autocomplete in email does not work anymore. i'm about to switch back to ff to see if it works there, i can't deal with this anymore. anyone know any recent news on this issue or how i can fix it?