Safari (web browser)

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Safari
Developer(s)Apple Inc.
Stable release
2.0.4 / Mac OS X v10.4 June 27, 2006
1.3.2 / Mac OS X v10.3 January 11, 2006
1.0.3 / Mac OS X v10.2 January 25, 2005
Preview release
3.0 (522.11) / June 11, 2007
Engine
  • WebKit
Edit this at Wikidata
Operating systemMac OS X, Microsoft Windows
PlatformMacintosh computers, Apple iPhone
TypeWeb browser
LicenseProprietary EULA, LGPL
WebsiteApple: Safari

Safari is a web browser developed by Apple Inc., and included in Mac OS X. It was first released as a public beta on January 7, 2003, and a final version was included as the default browser in Mac OS X v10.3. A preview version for Windows was released for the first time on June 11 2007.[1]

Safari has a bookmark management scheme that functions like the iTunes jukebox software, integrates Apple's QuickTime multimedia technology, and features a tabbed-browsing interface similar to that of Opera, Firefox, and Internet Explorer 7. A Google search box is a standard component of the Safari interface, as are software services that automatically fill out web forms, manage passwords via Keychain and spell check entries into web page text fields. The browser also includes an integrated pop-up ad blocker and a configurable image blocker.

Since the release of Safari, its browser usage share has been climbing. For the month of May 2007, thecounter.com shows that Safari has a usage share of 2.86%[2]; NetApplications.com reports that Safari has a usage share of 4.59% as of April 2007,[3], an increase of 1.33 percentage points since May 2006.

History and development

Until 1997, Apple Macintosh computers had shipped with Netscape Navigator only. Microsoft's Internet Explorer for Mac was subsequently included as the default web browser as part of the five year agreement between Apple and Microsoft. However, Netscape Navigator continued to be included. Microsoft released five major versions of Internet Explorer for Mac, with the last one being released on March 27, 2000.

On January 7, 2003, Steve Jobs announced that Apple had developed their own web browser called Safari.[4] They released the first beta version that day and a number of official and unofficial beta versions followed, until version 1.0 was released on June 23, 2003. Available as a separate download initially, it was included with the Mac OS X v10.3 release on October 24, 2003, as the default browser, with Internet Explorer for Mac included only as an alternative browser. Since the release of Mac OS X v10.4 in April 29, 2005, Safari is the only web browser included with the operating system.

Safari uses Apple's WebKit for rendering web pages and running JavaScript. WebKit consists of WebCore (based on Konqueror's KHTML engine) and JavaScriptCore (based on KDE's kjs JavaScript engine). Like KHTML and kjs, WebCore and JavaScriptCore are free software and are released under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License. Some Apple improvements to the KHTML code are merged back into the Konqueror project. Apple also releases additional code under an open source 2-clause BSD-like license.

File:Safari RSS.png
Safari showing the RSS feed of this article's revision history.

In June 2005, after some criticism from KHTML developers over lack of access to change logs, Apple moved the development source code and bug tracking of WebCore and JavaScriptCore to OpenDarwin.org. WebKit itself was also released as open source. The source code for non-renderer aspects of the browser, such as its GUI elements, remains proprietary.

Version 2.0 of Safari, released on April 29, 2005 and which runs only on Mac OS X 10.4.x (Tiger) or later, includes a built in RSS and Atom reader. Other features include Private Browsing (a mode in which no record of information about the user's web activity is retained), the ability to archive and e-mail web pages, the ability to search bookmarks, and a reported 1.8x speed boost over version 1.2.4.

In April 2005, Dave Hyatt, one of the Safari developers at Apple, documented his progress fixing bugs in Safari to get it to pass the Acid2 test. On April 27, 2005, he announced that his development version of Safari now passed the test, making it the first web browser to do so.[5] The changes were not initially available to end-users unless they downloaded and compiled the WebKit source code themselves or ran one of the nightly automated builds available at opendarwin.org.[6] However on October 31, 2005, Apple released version 2.0.2 of Safari that included the Acid2 bug fixes.

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs formally announced Apple's iPhone, which uses the Safari browser.

File:Safari 3.0 Windows Beta.png
Safari 3.0 Beta on Windows Vista

At the 2007 World Wide Developers Conference (WWDC) Steve Jobs announced Safari 3 would run on Microsoft's Windows XP and Windows Vista. Version 3.0 (beta) also works with GoogleDocs and allows for rich formatting in Gmail, both of which were unavailable on earlier versions of Safari.

Version history

Safari version WebKit version Mac OS version Release date Features
0.8 48 10.2 January 7, 2003 Public Beta. Initial release at Macworld conference.
0.9 73 10.2 April 14, 2003 Public Beta 2. Tabbed browsing, forms and passwords autofill, browser reset (removes cookies, cache and so on), Netscape and Mozilla bookmarks importing, improved support for web standards, improved AppleScript support, more localizations.
1.0 85 10.2 June 23, 2003 First non-beta release. Safari is now default Mac OS X browser, faster autotabs, support for iSync bookmark synchronization, all Mac OS X languages supported, more AppleScripts to control browser, improved support for web standards.
1.1 100 10.3 October 24, 2003 Released with Mac OS X v10.3. Improved speed, improved support for web standards, improved CSS support.
1.2 125 10.3 February 2, 2004 Improved compatibility with websites and web applications. Support for personal certificate authentication. Full keyboard access for navigation. Ability to resume interrupted downloads. LiveConnect support. XMLHttpRequest support.
1.3 312 10.3 April 15, 2005 Released with 10.3.9. Included most of the rendering speed and website compatibility improvements that were developed for 2.0.
2.0 412 10.4 April 29, 2005 Dubbed "Safari RSS." Released with Mac OS X v10.4. Improved rendering speed and website compatibility. Integrated RSS and Atom reader. Integrated PDF viewer. Private Browsing mode and Parental Controls. Saving Websites completely as Web Archives.
3.0 522.11 10.4 June 11, 2007 Public beta. Initial release at the Worldwide Developers Conference. Version for Mac OS X v10.4.9 and later, Windows XP and Windows Vista. Improved searching within web pages. Drag and drop tabs. Bonjour support for bookmarks. Initial SVG support.

See also

References

  1. ^ "Apple announces Windows browser". BBC News. June 11, 2007. Retrieved 2007-06-11.
  2. ^ thecounter.com. "Browser Stats". Jupitermedia Corporation. Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  3. ^ NetApplications.com. "Browser Market Share for April 2007". Retrieved 2007-05-03.
  4. ^ Dre (January 7, 2003). "Apple Announces New "Safari" Browser". KDE.NEWS. Retrieved 2006-01-04.
  5. ^ Dave Hyatt (April 27, 2005). "Safari Passes the Acid2 Test". Surfin' Safari. MozillaZine. Retrieved 2005-04-28.
  6. ^ Dave Hyatt (October 12, 2005). "Nightly Builds". Surfin' Safari. OpenDarwin.org. Retrieved 2006-10-29.

External links

Template:Mac OS X web browsers

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