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Why Hasn’t Safari Skyrocketed Like Chrome Has?

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Re: Why Hasn’t Safari Skyrocketed Like Chrome Has?

#11

Post by sjs »

jerrya wrote: post #6
breckinloggins wrote: post #2

I use Chrome on all platforms for which it's available for three reasons: 1. It's fast 2. It updates automatically 3. It has a single location/search bar For me, that's it. Really.

I would add it seems to work almost intuitively, but I find Safari works against me (on Windows). And it may just be a coincidence, but it's similar to QuickTime. Yay! There's a new trailer for the Alien prequel out, and it's ... hosted at Apple. That means I'll see it in a window that doesn't full screen, whose controls don't work right, and it probably won't even download regardless of how often I click it. Thank t…

Chrome ruined Safari for me. When I fire up Safari more often than not I end up doing this: http://i.imgur.com/nDk2R.png

Re: Why Hasn’t Safari Skyrocketed Like Chrome Has?

#13

Post by tseabrooks »

Could just be me; But I've never found any "Apple" software that wasn't miserable to use on windows. iTunes, QuickTime, Safari... I assume laziness or the feeling that it just isn't necessary on the part of Apple; But who knows.

As for why I use Chrome (Even on my Macs); It's just more pleasant to use. It's the sort of thing that's hard to put a finger on, though it does run google web apps way better than the competition which is a huge reason for me also.

Re: Why Hasn’t Safari Skyrocketed Like Chrome Has?

#14

Post by sliverstorm »

tseabrooks wrote: post #13

Could just be me; But I've never found any "Apple" software that wasn't miserable to use on windows. iTunes, QuickTime, Safari... I assume laziness or the feeling that it just isn't necessary on the part of Apple; But who knows. As for why I use Chrome (Even on my Macs); It's just more pleasant to use. It's the sort of thing that's hard to put a finger on, though it does run google web apps way better than the compet…

Safari's interface is obtuse, slow, and unintuitive. Also (Apple-style) the hitboxes for important buttons are smaller than they need be.

There, I put my finger on it.

Re: Why Hasn’t Safari Skyrocketed Like Chrome Has?

#15

Post by sliverstorm »

jedberg wrote: post #8

I use both on my machine. Safari is my "Facebook" browser -- I use it for Facebook and Facebook alone. Chrome is my everything else browser. Mainly because it has a unified url/search bar. I have no idea with Safari hasn't picked this up, but that's pretty much it. Oh and also because all the google apps just seem to work better on Chrome. I used use Firefox as my everything browser, but it got just too slow. I mostl…

I too abandoned Firefox for Chrome as FF got worse, but Firefox 8 is pretty good again- if you don't load it up with addons.

Re: Why Hasn’t Safari Skyrocketed Like Chrome Has?

#17

Post by tzs »

jedberg wrote: post #8

I use both on my machine. Safari is my "Facebook" browser -- I use it for Facebook and Facebook alone. Chrome is my everything else browser. Mainly because it has a unified url/search bar. I have no idea with Safari hasn't picked this up, but that's pretty much it. Oh and also because all the google apps just seem to work better on Chrome. I used use Firefox as my everything browser, but it got just too slow. I mostl…

> Mainly because it has a unified url/search bar. I have no idea with Safari hasn't picked this up

Privacy, perhaps? Doesn't a unified url/search bar require giving more information to Google (or whatever your default search provider is)?

Re: Why Hasn’t Safari Skyrocketed Like Chrome Has?

#19

Post by azakai »

The answers are pretty obvious.

1. Chrome is marketed all over the web (and in real life) and bundled through shareware. Google is spending a tremendous amount of money to market Chrome. Apple is not doing that with Safari.

2. Safari is the default in OS X, but OS X is still small compared to Windows.

3. Safari on Windows is not as fast as Safari on OS X, presumably because Apple cares more about one than the other, whereas Chrome is fast on both platforms. The author seems to assume that since they are both WebKit browsers, that means they are the same, but that isn't true by any measure: First, Google doesn't use the WebKit multiprocess code or the WebKit JS engine, it has its own, and both of those components are very important for speed; and second, even aside from those there are many factors that go into making a browser fast, and just using WebKit (or Gecko or Trident or whatever) doesn't fix them automatically.

The real question is how many people use Safari on OS X. That's where it is optimized and bundled. I am guessing the percentage is pretty high, but if it is low, then that would be a surprising fact that requires explanation.

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