How to Get the Best Browser Experience from Safari
Tweak Safari with a few extensions and add-ons to make it the fastest, fashionable-est, Facebook-iest browsing companion ever.
If you’re an Apple purist, then Firefox and Google Chrome just won’t cut it. Since Safari’s been updated to version 5, more third-party developers have created add-on extensions for Apple’s browser, so you can customize it to your liking. Our favorite Safari add-ons take it from just another browser to an ultimate internet companion.
What You’ll Need:
>> Safari 5
>> 5 Minutes
Difficulty: Easy
1. Make It Your Social Media Hub
With three simple social extensions you can easily give Facebook the makeover you want, share links with friends, and keep track of activity in your feed. The first step is to download Social Fixer (socialfixer.com), which lets you change Facebook’s convoluted UI. Once installed, Social Fixer will guide you through a setup wizard where you can choose to eliminate things like the “light box” photo viewer and the Friend Tracker carousel. Or, you can get creative and let Social Fixer add in a colorful theme.

Tweets relevant to your browser window are displayed on the left side.
If you’re a Twitter fiend, the official Twitter app (available at extensions.apple.com) is a necessity. The Twitter add-on enables you to tweet right from your browser and share stories as quickly as you read about them, as well as keep an eye on topics that relate to what you’re browsing in the left-hand side of your browser.
When you’re finished customizing both and setting your options, you can add the official Google Plus add-on, too (github.com/danls/Google-Plus-Safari-Extension). You know, because people still use Google Plus.
2. Never Lose Your Place Again
Multitaskers, you may find that in your web-browsing fervor you’re closing windows left and right without saving your work or keeping tabs on, uh, your tabs. If you accidentally close a tab, you can reopen it in the History menu, but if you’re looking for more complexity, look no further than SafariRestore (sweetpproductions.com/), which can restore entire browsing sessions.

SafariRestore offers many options for saving your work.
From Safari’s settings, you can set Safari to restore your last session on startup, restore all tabs in a single window, or default to a particular session where you have Twitter and MacLife.com open up every time you launch Safari. (Seriously, do that).
3. Remember Your Passwords

The LastPass options can be accessed from a button located next to the URL bar.
Never worry about remembering passwords with LastPass, a free and easy-to-manage password service that swaps them all out for one master keyword. The service also automatically fills out forms for you and helps protect you against identity theft. Before you install it, sign up for the service at LastPass.com.
usmc2k3
January 20, 2012 at 9:39pm
I've been using Google Chrome for a while now, love it. Fast and stable. Firefox just crashed too much for me to continue using it. I wish Safari would get its act together with less beach ball.
pollixx
January 09, 2012 at 4:36pm
Install AdBlock and ClicktoFlash extensions and you are half way to a great Safari experience. Next go to preferences, advanced, and at the bottom check show develop menu in the menu bar. Click on the Develop in the Safari Menu Bar and check Enable WebGL. This should enhance your Safari experience.
siyecao99
January 05, 2012 at 6:55pm
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mjrmd
January 04, 2012 at 12:00pm
It's really remarkable that Apple has allowed Safari to fall so far behind Firefox and Chrome. It does have some nice features tied to OS X, such as tapping to easily enlarge text, but that doesn't compensate for the fact that it offers large blank spaces on pages where a Flash feature should be.
I find myself tired of switching to other browsers and have just about given up on the positive features in favor of a browser that doesn't leave me staring into space.
Geoduck
January 04, 2012 at 7:31am
I tried all sorts of plug ins and extensions but I finally had to admit that Safari was just not very good any more.
I looked around and settled on FireFox. Chrome sends too much to HomeBase for me to be comfortable with it. Opera is good but I found some quirks that bothered me too much. Not that FireFox is perfect. It has some annoying habits as well. But overall it's been much more stable, less beach ball prone, and more compatible with sites than Safari has been in several years.
The thing is that Mobile Safari is quite good. Why can't Apple get it together to bring Safari for Mac up to that level.
chsoundman
January 04, 2012 at 12:32am
The only way to get the best experience from Safari for me would be to find a way to eliminate the constant spinning beach ball every time I try to do something in Safari!! I've tried to open pages before, gone to Firefox and opened the same pages, read what I wanted to and gone back to Safari and the pages have still never loaded.....just the stupid spinning beach ball.
VitaminCM
January 03, 2012 at 7:54pm
Go to google.com/chrome
download google chrome
stop using Safari
chirpity
January 07, 2012 at 3:18pm
If you use an iPhone or Android phone you also have no privacy. They send data everywhere all the time.
matthew12
January 03, 2012 at 4:17pm
You forgot the most important tool in my opinion: Adblocker. It greatly increases my browsing speed with those annoying banners zapped away before I even get to the webpage I'm looking for. And best of all, like all Safari extensions, it's free!
dotcom3
January 07, 2012 at 10:06pm
Adblocker is sweet, but I'm sure MacLife doesn't want us using it since they make money with ads.
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