After years of loving the speed of the Safari web browser but hating the lack of features, I was anxious to see what Apple had in store for us with Safari 5. Unfortunately, I’ve found the most annoying behavior still exists, and it keeps me from using Safari on a regular basis.For many years I was a fan of Firefox – mostly due to extensions, which I used heavily. While Safari was faster, it just lacked too much for my day-to-day use. When Google released Chrome for the Mac, I switched almost immediately. The developer releases contained extension support long ago, and I was happy to take advantage of the new speed, along with most all the extensions I used.
When Apple recently released Safari 5 with extension support, I decided to give it another try.
It only took a few days for developers to start releasing useful extensions. I’ve been using Safari 5 for a week or two now, and so far I like it. I’m not sure I’m ready to leave Chrome any time soon, mostly because there’s one thing that prevents me from even considering it.
Safari 5 bookmark bars annoys the hell out of me
I keep my bookmarks filed neatly in folders, which all reside on the bookmarks bar for easy access. When I click any particular folder in the bookmarks bar (as seen in the screenshot above) and then change my mind; I’m forced to click the folder a second time to de-activate it before clicking another folder to view its contents.
This is the only browser I can find that works in this manner. All the others simply let me hover the mouse over any folder, click it and move over another folder without clicking a second time before clicking another folder. I find this so incredibly annoying I’ve quite and relaunched Chrome numerous times simply to avoid this behavior. I know it sounds crazy, but it just really bugs the hell out of me.
So how do you like the new Safari? What do you like, what’s missing? Sound off in the comments.
Yep, the bookmarks menu thing annoys me too. I thought I was having mouse control issues at first, glad to see it’s not just me!
Also, I’m sure there’s a similar oddity when trying to close tabs sometimes. It’s as if the little close button becomes unresponsive unless you click onto something else first.
I’d just like to add my vote to the “this is maddening as hell” column. Other than this menu behavior and the lack of site-specific pop-up blocking, Safari is a pleasure to use, and has lots of nice touches. What makes this so frustrating is that it would be so easy to fix.
This has been my biggest gripe with Safari for years. Everyone for whom it doesn’t matter thinks it’s a silly point, but it drives me nuts. Mostly because every other menu in the OS works the exact opposite way. Why wouldn’t the book mark menu behave the way the main apple menu does?
Never mind that every other browser in the universe works the right way, Apple’s own OS menus and app menus work the right way as well. Safari is the ONLY program apple makes with this bizarre menu behavior. Apple seems insistent that the bookmark bar items act like buttons instead of menus, but that just doesn’t make sense. I know for a fact they have been getting this feedback since Safari 3, so if they had any intention to change it, they would have done it by now. Save yourself some grief and use Chrome. Chrome had this same problem for a while, but it’s has been fixed since version 3.
I love the new Read button, and did you ever try to read/modify bookmarks or history in other browsers (like Chrome to take an exemple)?
My Macbook is a couple of years old and running low on HD space, so that may be the problem, but Safari has been so incredibly slow to start up and run I won’t even use it. Safari 5 is no better.
I think it has to do with the “Top Sites” feature, which I can’t seem to figure out how to turn off. I don’t use it and certainly don’t want my browser to keep a rendered version of every page in its memory like that.
Am I missing something? Can I keep Safari from doing this? Does anyone else think Safari is painfully slow?
James, Safari is still my favorite browser. I still like how we can add any image to iPhoto library and get instant definitions of words while browsing and being able to copy/paste items in the Activity window into the downloads window for downloading. My biggest beef with Safari (and this is probably to actually be blamed on Flash) is the amount of memory it takes up over time.
The annoyance you are talking about does not bother me but, for you the only thing I can think of is to press the esc key and it will deselect the current folder. Not a real solution but, the only thing I can think of.
I’ll be the first to admit that my complaint is relatively minor, and there are ways around it (as you pointed out). But it’s just one of those little things that I just can’t bring myself to overlook. It just bugs me to no end.
The memory problem you mentioned occurs in virtually every browser I’ve ever used – though the amount of time it’s open to slow down varies. And as you stated, it’s most likely due to Flash. At least, that’s when I notice it the most.
I don’t get it. When I open my bookmarks and hover over a folder…a 2nd menu pops open to the left. When I move away the menu goes away. It won’t pick a bookmark until I click it. If I click it …it opens the page. what’s wrong with that?
All my browsers work the same way.
(Chrome, Safari, Firefox on Snow Leopard.)
I agree with this BIG TIME. I still shake my head. The few times I switch to firefox for compatibility reasons, I just smile at the proper functionality. What cracks me up is the fact that there has to be employees at Apple who also hate the way it is, but can’t do anything about it. This is common sense interface design here. It should not work the way it does. It makes no logical sense to require the extra clicks to do something so simple. Dare I say it, it’s very un-apple like.
“Un-Apple like” is a good way to put it. But then again, I’m not a huge fan of Apple’s software beyond the OS itself. I always feel like they stopped half-way through and left out a ton of obvious and useful features. iPhoto, iChat, Mai, Font Book, and Safari come to mind here. Then there’s the utter disaster they turned iMovie into. Ugh.
“Please tell me I’m the one missing something here’
Got it!
@Bob
I’m talking about when you want to bookmark a page. You get the dialog telling you to enter a name and then select from a folder, where all folders (including subs) are displayed.
Please tell me I’m the one missing something here 🙂
amack, maybe I’m missing something here, but if you create folders (and sub-folders) within the “Show All Bookmarks” window, they DO show the main folders with disclosure triangles that you can click on or ignore at your pleasure.
My biggest gripe with Safari (my preferred browser) involves the process of bookmarking a page. I don’t need to see every freaking subfolder down to the smallest level. Why can’t Apple follow its Finder paradigm and show only main folders with disclosure triangles leading to subfolders?
And don’t get me started on Finder windows. Apple still can’t come up with a UI that does away with a hodgepodge of window sizes and views that may or may not be sticky. I wish they’d hire me to do it. Yeah, right.
There is a one-click way:
Instead of clicking on a folder in your Safari Bookmarks Bar to open the drop-down menu, click-and-hold on it. You can then select one of the items in the drop-down menu if you wish, but if you change your mind, just release the mouse button and the drop-down menu closes 🙂
You missed the point. He doesn’t want to have to release the mouse button to close a drop down menu before moving to the next one. And I would be annoyed at having to hover over a folder for any amount of time as well. All other browsers it is instant.