Safari on Windows
posted 12 June 2007
Oh, great... another A-grade browser to support.
I suppose I sort of have to say something about today's WWDC releases. The release of Leopard is mainly a great big yawn. The interesting things were:
- Safari for Windows. This is... odd. I have trouble working out their motivations. It seems to be a combination of the fact that the port was relatively easy (since KHTML already exists for Windows, and in fact some people were already distributing browsers for Windows based on it) and a desire to gain support for Safari by increasing its market share. And I suppose, by making it easier to test Safari web apps on Windows, they're widening the developer base for the next item...
- Web apps on the iPhone. They've gotten around the security problem of third-party applications on a smartphone by making the only third-party apps allowed be web apps. One assumes they'll be making some kind of JavaScript API available to allow you to make calls and use the other features of the iPhone as they claim will be possible, but I'm not sure how they intend to make that secure... if you ever visit this site on a iPhone, it will automatically dial 1-900-CASH-GRAB.
- The new Apple.Com features a totally new look and JavaScript out the wazoo. It looks superficially very Web2.0, although there's actually no Ajax to be found, and zero social interaction, so it's entirely cosmetic. However, it's very slick indeed, and built on the deservingly well-regarded script.aculo.us javascript library (although oddly they don't seem to have noticed yet). I have to say that while it's very well implemented, the white-on-black text is painful to read and it's dreadfully busy for a site that used to be famous for clarity and minimalism. Perhaps it will grow on me. Certainly its looks and those snazzy script.aculo.us controls will be stolen by every half-assed designer in the industry now (on the instructions of their clueless CEO) so get ready for every site on the web to start looking like this.
So... nothing really earth-shaking. But quite cool.
Comments
Ade B
Black on white is probably the worst for me.
ed
ed
greg
But I came across an interesting point that I didn't know about. John Gruber points out that integrated search bars in browsers are a source of revenue - apparently this made around $50M for the Mozilla Foundation in 2005.
So if Apple is getting even a fraction of that, it not only pays the salaries of the Safari team (including a few windows developers) but turns a little profit. And putting out a Windows version will only increases that revenue. So why not put it out there and see what happens?
greg
It is:
http://daringfireball.net/2007/06/wwdc_2007_keynote
Laurie
Dave
Safari 2 does not do this and I'd hate to think they started this practice on version 3. If you're referring to the error pages that show if the server is unreachable then that is fine.
Now as anyone can make money from Google searches web hosting companies can make money by adding Google search boxes to their customers 404 pages. Shame I never thought of that when at Boltblue :)
Laurie
greg
Laurie