Safari Rant

I just wanted to rant about Safari after the Sonoma update. Which in my opinion was a very boring update.

Adding profiles was nice, but that’s just catching up to basic browser features. Adding Favicons to the Favorites Bar was welcomed but again, catching up to basic browser features. I also wish they would’ve let you just show the Favicons on the Favorites Bar.

My Safari Wishlist

-PiP: the same features as Firefox and Vivaldi. Don’t need to hold CMD to place the window where you want. Just move it there and it stays there versus the four corners of your monitor. Has a volume button on the window. Has a scrubbing bar. And to use your left and right keyboard keys to scrub backward and forward. And being able to have more than one window in PiP at the same time. I know that sounds A.D.D. but when you’re in the zone surfing the web and looking things up PiP is very nice to have.

-Bookmarks: Bookmark icon/star shows when you’re visiting a page you have bookmarked. I don’t know of any browser that doesn’t have it, forever. A duplicate bookmark finder feature like Edge does. And that duplicate finder feature lets you delete the duplicate. A total number of bookmarks you have. Sort all your folders in Bookmarks alphabetically.

-Tile/Split Window button: I know this sounds A.D.D. again. But hear me out. I used this feature in Vivaldi when researching some medical stuff and searching for a new refrigerator. And it was so nice! Sure you can put two browser windows next to each other. But when you’re comparing information and want a window (fridge features) to stay right there and the other window looking comparisons up, it works so well. This way your browser stays organized and not a hot mess of tabs just for a single thing you’re looking up. Edge, Vivaldi, Arc, and Sigma OS have nice tile window features.

-Reading List: Maybe Apple doesn’t want to get into competition with other read later apps and software. I wish they’d add folders, tags, and an archive feature for what you’ve read but want to keep it for reference later.

-Extensions: More of them of course! I use Ad-Guard but would much rather have Ublock Origin. I think if Apple wouldn’t charge devs for their extensions, Safari would get a flood of great extensions and get kudos from the tech world.

I know this all may sound nitpicky but I like to bookmark interesting sites to check out later. I might not visit them regularly but I want them saved for reference later. Plus bookmarks hardly take up any space. Apple does a fantastic job of syncing your browser information across all your devices. So if I bookmark a site on my MacMini, iPhone, or iPad I know I’ll be able to see them on any devices later on.

I tried to move to Brave full time but there were some features of Safari/Apple ecosystem that put an end to it.

-Receiving text verification codes in Safari. That’s such a nice and very convenient feature!

-Safari’s take on Tab Groups. I prefer Safari’s take on tab groups so much more than other browsers. It’s neat and tidy. Easy to access. And with Apple ecosystem syncing they show up exactly the same on all my devices, so nice!

-Saving pages to Apple Notes. So this is 100% preference nitpicky. But when you use the Share button to save a webpage to Apple Notes it does it in a nice thumbnail view. I use this feature a lot when saving books I want to read later, shows I want to watch later, or saving websites to a note for some project I’m looking into home repair or some topic that requires a lot of reading and information. Sure I can copy and paste links to Apple Notes. But they just show up as URL text versus a thumbnail which makes visually scanning my blackhole of Notes easier to manage.

-The chore of setting up and syncing new browsers across all my Apple devices is not fun! I have a MacMini, iPhone, iPad Air, and iPad Mini. Way more than I need. Safari is already on all my devices and synced, Apple got the hooks in me.

Okay, end rant. Am I just being a grouchy nerd? Are there any other Apple users that feel the same way? Hope everyone has a great weekend.