Omniweb
Once a paid for app from the Omni group, it's now been made freeware, which is great for Mac users in one way, but not in another. If a developer makes something free, it normally means that development will stall. I hope this isn't the case as this is a really nice browser. It's quick, very quick (Chrome only beats to the line by a short nose), it comes with drag and drop tabbed windows, workspaces that save your browsing sessions, history and window locations. The way it uses tabs is unique (they appear as a screen down the left side of the browser window instead of at the top), and it gives you the functionality to tune out all ads, popups and web blurb to leave you in peace with your browsing.
SeaMonkey
Strange name, but good features and lot of them. Tabbed browsing, Add ons, Feed detection and preview plus a smart location feature that finds previously visited sites as you type into the location bar. Like Opera it has a built in, fully fledged email client, plus an HTML composer, an IRC chat client and web development. The user interface might be a bit plain Jane, but this is the sister at home Opera doesn't want you to meet.
Camino
Another favourite of mine, but don't let that sway you. Unlike some other browsers, Camino has been built from the ground up exclusively for the Mac platform, and it shows. Tab overviews, Phishing and malware protection, download notifications, and a baby boomer proof ability to zoom the full content of a web page instead of just increasing the text size. The UI is totally uncluttered and functional and it uses the least RAM of all of them. Worth a look.
Splitbrowser
This app is both new and promising, and might just be the thing that Mac bloggers have been craving...the ability to have 4 different sites open in the same browser window - no more tab to tab to tab! I feel a bit of a flake here, as it's not a browser per se, but requires Safari running in the background. I'll be having an in depth look at this, and posting a review inside the internet marketing section also, as it looks like it could be a bit of a sleeping giant.
Google Chrome
Quick, Lean, Simple and Secure. Google has designed Chrome to be fast out of the blocks at startup, and it uses a Java based engine that is capable of running the most complex web apps. It's interface is clean and uncluttered, and it has malware and phishing protection built in. As at time of writing, everyones current favourite rave. For me, it's still not fully formed, but when it's finally sorted.....
Opera
Opera sells itself as the Macs fastest browser, and for me it is. An elegant interface that is quick to load webpages, optimized tabs with a neat preview function that lets you see content by hovering your mouse over it, the Opera design team has been hard at work at this over the past year. Not only have they incorporated a turbo function for slower internet connections but it also has its own built in email client, so you can have everything you need in one place on your worktop. I could sit all day and watch the wave effect moving over the open tabs, but that's between me and my therapist.
Firefox
For a long time now Firefox has been the big beast of browsers on both the Mac and PC. Now boasting zillions of extensions that can customize your browsing experience and it continues its development apace. A redesigned search bar, one click bookmarking, private browsing that keeps you anonymous on the web, Instant web site ID that warns you about flakey sites and lots more. A big, comfortable armchair of a browser. But why, with all these bells and whistles is there no formatted copy and paste function)?
Well, there you are, the browsers that in my humble opinion are the real competition to Safari. I honestly recommend you download all of them and give them a run out, I guarantee you won't be disappointed, and you might just find the application that suits you perfectly. Happy Browsing!
Jeff bought his first Mac in 1989, it had 1mb of ram, a 19mb hard drive and it cost him over $1400! He used it to produce everything from a local newspaper to a business card. Over the years he has upgraded and upgraded until now he stands up in his lofty retreat, arms folded and surrounded by the latest Macs humming away quietly in the background.
He's learned a lot about Macs in the past twenty years, and is keen to pass his knowledge on, whilst all the time waiting for the new Mac that will come with a 'press once to write an article' button.
Honorable Mention - iCab
The powerusers browser without doubt. Screamingly quick, a quirky but very mac like UI.
It's fast, secure, very light on memory and with too many configuration options to put down in one paragraph. The baby of a lone developer over in Germany, this really is a labour of love. Constant updates and bug fixes, this guy doesn't sit there staring out of the window all day, he's hard at it improving his product. Why just an honorable mention? I promised free browsers, and iCab is free as long as you want to put up with the floating window that will appear throughout the day (it's no big deal really, and not very intrusive), but to remove it the dev would like you to pay him $20. Personally I think it's worth it - he makes his living that way. See what you think - iCab has a cult following out there.
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