Apple promises a faster Web Safari

CALIFORNIA, USA: Apple Inc today announced the public beta of Safari 4, which it claims to be the fastest and innovative web browser for Mac and Windows PCs.

Safari 4 is built on the advanced browser technologies including the new Nitro JavaScript engine that executes JavaScript up to 30 times faster than IE 7 and more than three times faster than Firefox 3, said a press release.

Safari loads HTML web pages thirty times faster than IE 7 and almost three times faster than Firefox 3, it added.

New features that make browsing more intuitive and enjoyable include Top Sites, that gives visual preview of frequently visited pages; Full History Search, to search through titles, web addresses and the complete text of recently viewed pages; Cover Flow, to flip through web history or bookmarks; and Tabs on Top to make tabbed browsing easier and more intuitive.

“Apple created Safari to bring innovation, speed and open standards back into Web browsers, and today it takes another big step forward,” said Philip Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing, Apple.

“Safari 4 is the fastest and most efficient browser for Mac and Windows, with great integration of HTML 5 and CSS 3 web standards that enables the next generation of interactive web applications,” he added.

Safari for Mac, Windows, iPhone and iPod touch are all built on Apple’s WebKit, said the release. Apple developed WebKit as an open source project to create the world’s best browser engine and to advance the adoption of modern web standards, it claimed.

The industry’s newest browsers are based on WebKit including Google Chrome, the Google Android browser, the Nokia Series 60 browser and Palm webOS, added the release.

Internet Explorer, Firefox, Google Chrome, and now the Safari. What do you think of the browser revolution? Will it be able to pose a threat to the market dominance of Internet Explorer?