We were a bit surprised when Apple announced the release of Safari 5. We hadn’t heard rumors about the new version, or the features that it contained. This update is not just simply a rehash of the previous version of Safari, though. It includes all new features and some never-before-seen things that make Safari 5.0 our favorite little browser on the Mac.

We’ve split this article about the cool features of Safari into two sections: Apple-added features and features you can get by downloading extensions. As it turns out, some of the cooler features in Safari 5.0 don't come from Apple, but from developers who are making some really interesting extensions.

Apple-added Features in Safari 5.0

Extensions... Finally, Extensions!

The ability to customize Safari by installing extensions is a feature that we’ve been waiting a long time for. While the process is similar to what you might find in other browsers (like Firefox or Chrome), the way Apple is handling development makes extension developers have more accountability.

When you install an extension, you get a new tab in your Safari preferences that allows you to manage installed extensions. We really like the ability to turn off all extensions with a single click of the mouse.

If you try to install an extension and get an error saying that extensions have not been enabled, then you can go to Develop > Enable Extensions. If you don’t have a Develop menu, you can enable it by visiting the Advance tab in Safari Preferences.



When you download and try to install an extension, Safari will alert you to make sure you really want to install that particular extension. This is similar to the way Dashboard handles installing widgets.

You will most likely need to refer to the extension website to find out how to use the extension as Apple has enabled developers to put options in a few different places. You can most commonly find installed extensions in the toolbar or as a right-click option.

Here’s some of the great extensions that we’ve been using with Safari 5:
- Beautifier
- GoMBoX
- GReader
- View Style Sheets

 

More Support for HTML5

It’s the future of the web, and Apple is embracing it wholeheartedly with Safari 5.0. This new version contains support for many new HTML5 features like full screen video, closed captioning for video, draggable attributes, and form validation. These features will allow web developers to continue innovating the Internet.

Rarely does the consumer care about the technologies surrounding the creation of different online tools, but HTML5 is something that will definitely benefit everyone soon. It allows for a richer web experience than you’ve experienced before. You can see this in the HTML5 demos that Apple posted last week that showcases some of the strengths of HTML5.

 

Safari Reader: For Better Online Reading

Reading online articles can be quite a misadventure for some, especially for those used to reading news on paper instead of in a web browser. That’s why Apple created the Safari Reader feature.

This feature (similar to the Readability bookmarklet from Arc90 Labs) lets you click on the Reader button in the address bar to read an article in a distraction free space. The background dims out and you’re left with simple text on a white background. 

When mousing over the bottom portion of the Reader page, you get 5 options: Zoom out, zoom in, email, print, and close. When emailing or printing using these options, you only print the text and graphics related to the article, not ads or other useless information.

 

Faster JavaScript Engine Leaves Your Pages Snappier

Sure, it’s not something that you can physically see in Safari 5.0, but it is something that you can feel. When loading a page that contains a lot of JavaScript (such as Aviary’s many products or Google Docs), then you can definitely notice faster speeds.

According to Apple’s specs page for Safari 5.0, the new Nitro JavaScript engine means that Safari 5 runs 30% faster than version 4 and 3% faster than Chrome 5.0. That makes the JavaScript engine in Safari 5 the fastest when compared to Chrome, Opera and Firefox.

 

DNS Prefetching and Improved Caching

To make pages load faster, Apple is using something called DNS prefetching.  This is also coupled with an improved caching system to make overall page loads faster. All of this translates into a faster web browsing experience because Safari will automatically search through links on the page, look up the addresses, and load cached items on the pages.

 

Improved Address Bar

Apple has improved the address bar in this version of Safari, allowing you to not only type in an address, but also type in keywords to match against titles of web pages you’ve visited in the past.

This is very similar to what Firefox does with it’s so-dubbed "awesome bar." In addition to offering up pages in your browser’s history and bookmarks, the address bar will also still match URLs as the previous version did. This feature will no doubt save you some typing.

 

Better Tab Settings

If you’ve ever used Safari as your main browser before, then you’ve probably been annoyed when you click a link in another program and it opens in a new window instead of a new tab.

If you’re a fan of tabbed browsing, then you can now select a setting where all links will be opened in a new tab and never in a new window. To do this, head over to your Tab Preferences (Safari > Preferences > Tabs) and select Always from the drop-down menu that says Open pages in tabs instead of windows.

You will most likely get a pop-down menu that asks if you’re sure you want to change this setting. By selecting Always Create Tabs, Safari 5 will open everything in new tabs instead of new windows.

And if you accidently close a tab, Command+Z reopens the tab. Magical.

NEXT: Search, Hardware Acceleration and Extentions>>