After 2 months since I first posted a test post on this site, i never quite got round to tidying things up and performing the final tasks to make this site ready for life in the wild. Anyway, time has progressed and now the site has finally opened it's doors. It's strange though, when I set about this recent re-development of proji.co.uk I was busily working away with my new array of tools as this is the first overhaul done with my Mac.

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Work went well in the early stages with Transmit (FTP), Textedit and Firefox, however in the last few days I performed the upgrade to Firefox 3. Now I've been using Firefox since 1.0 so I like to think I'm experienced enough, especially as I have worked with it on Windows, Linux and Mac. However this latest update is missing something that I can't quite place my finger on. Among other things, Firefox 3 has seen a new user interface get implemented. It's a little different to what I'm used to, but all the features I need are in the right places, and now in OS X Firefox looks even more integrated, with all the buttons on web pages looking like OS X buttons, much like they do in Apple's Safari.

Then there's all the array of new security features, including a neat (if somewhat largely redundant) feature, where next to your address bar you can click on the web site's logo to find out important certificate information about it. Not a bad idea, and certainly reassuring if you want know you're on a respectible website. Unfortunately, it doesn't quite work in practice, as on many websites it will display a message telling you it has no information on that website. The only exceptions I've found are when you enter into a purchase on a website, but maybe that's really all it needs to do.

The address bar is now known as the "Awesome" bar, a grand title without doubt, but I personally wouldn't call it awesome, it does the job of being an address bar perfectly well, and it brings some new features to the table. But all this is really secondary, the primary function of a web browser is websites, and in this area Firefox performs like the work horse that it is. Yet I still find myself thinking that something is missing. Since I upgraded, my experience with 3.0 has felt a little flat, it doesn't quite have that homely feel I had with 2.x. The strange thing is it's probably all fine and I'm just imagining something isn't right, but yet I still have this feeling.

So I fired up Safari for the first time since I got my iMac, and all seems to be right with the world again. It's fast (OK really fast) but everything is working just fine, and I'm enjoying my experience so far, to the point that I'm finishing this website using Safari, and typing this post in it too. Maybe it's just a case of needing a change, a break from the usual routine, but for now Apple's browser is now my default port of call.

Safari is without doubt a browser I really underestimated and one I'd happily call a good alternative to Firefox.