** a beta version is available over at filehippo > any takers ? 
the beta version is available at apple.com too...
I downloaded it and the first thing I noticed that I really liked was the page search function. It looks really cool! You hit Ctrl-F and type in your search, hit enter and it dims the page and highlights every occurrence of the string. You'd have to see it to be impressed.
I saw this on slashdot and the reviewer said that he found 5 bugs in the first hour or two of using the program, so apple obviously has some things to work on still. After all it is a beta.
Safari boasts that has the faster loading time, html parsing, and javascript interpreting. I don't know if I believe it. Especially since it said opera had the slowest html parsing... I thought opera was the fastest! Of course I haven't looked at opera in a while, the may not be so great anymore.
Safari uses its own look that completely disagrees with windows xp. But I guess that is what apple is the best at: making their own stuff. I think I would like it better if it were made to match the OS.
Everything else in the browser seems to be close to the same as firefox and ie. You have options to enable and disable features like css and javascript, block pop-ups, change appearance of web pages. You have tabs, bookmarks, rss, and auto complete.
The download window is similar to the firefox download window. It lets you stop downloads and restart them later at your convenience.
Maybe with more security benefits and customization, this would be a viable alternative for ie or firefox.
I won't make the move any time soon though.
