Safari 4 is the truth!

Being the very proud Mac user that I am, I've been quick to recommend Apple's Safari browser to all of my PC-using friends, ever since the browser became cross-platform. But it took me a while to download the new Safari 4, only because I was too lazy to download the necessary security update for my computer.

But I finally downloaded the security update a few days ago, and subsequently downloaded Safari 4...

WOW!

It's hard to find the words to express just how much I love this new version of Safari. But I'll do my best.

First, the new "Top Sites" feature is a great idea. Now, I already had all of my top sites in the "Bookmarks Bar," which is located under the URL field. But the new "Top Sites" page is simply beautiful to look at. For example, here are my own "Top Sites":

Now, you have the choice of either selecting your own sites to be placed on the "Top Sites" page, or letting Safari pick your top sites itself (based on the sites that you visit most often). Personally, I like some things to stay constant, and since Safari's picks change according to your browsing history, I decided to select my own sites.

Being the very visual person that I am, this makes my web browsing experience a little bit easier, and a lot more nicer. But the visual improvements don't stop there.

If you're familiar with the "Cover Flow" feature in iTunes (and newer iPods), you'll probably be very excited to see this same feature present in Safari 4 when you're browsing through your history and bookmarks. The "Cover Flow" here contains screenshots associated with each page in your history and bookmarks. This is extremely helpful, as it gives you a glimpse of every page that you've either visited or bookmarked.

The search features are also much improved in Safari 4. When typing in the Google search field in the browser toolbar, Safari will automatically suggest searches based on what you've typed, as a result of Google Suggest. For example, if I type in "lupe," the first suggestion that comes up is "lupe fiasco," which is exactly what I was about to type. What a smart browser!

Even better, however, is the new "Full History Search" feature. On the "Top Sites" page, there's a "Search History" field, with which you can fully search through all of the pages that you've recently visited. For example, if I type in "state department," the first result that comes up is an article that I read on msnbc.com about Hillary Clinton breaking her elbow. The words "state department" aren't in the page's title or URL, but the article itself states that Clinton broke her elbow "in a fall in the State Department garage."

That's what "Full History Search" means. (By the way, that's a shame about the elbow. I hope she gets well soon.)

So anyway, those are just a few reasons why Safari 4 is absolutely amazing. I must say, I'm quite impressed.

Way to go, Apple.