Making Safari act more like Firefox

September 7, 2009 4:13 AM

I'm looking for Safari plugins that will let it emulate Firefox's handling of saved passwords and superior address bar search. I'm also looking for the Safari equivalent of Linky.

I like Safari better than Firefox for the Mac, but there are three things Firefox does better:
1. Firefox lets you see whether a password has actually worked before it asks if you want to save it.
2. When you type a word or phrase in the address bar, Firefox searches the contents of your previously browsed pages, not just the titles.
3. Firefox has Linky, Safari doesn't.

Are there Safari plugins that will let Safari act more like Firefox in these cases?

posted by yankeefog to computers & internet (3 comments total)

Most of the plug-ins for Safari (I'm assuming you're talking about the Mac version) use SIMBL and other little unendorsed hacks which don't work with Safari 4 on Snow Leopard (in 64-bit mode, you can open it in 32-bit and many will stiill work). I'm not sure any plug in will give you the password awesomeness of Firefox's allowing you to save a password after entering.

There's a website called Pimp My Safari which has several add-ons for Safari, but like I said many will not work on Safari 4 and if you're running Snow Leopard you'll get more problems. You'll also notice many of the add-ons are quite old and appear abandoned.

Safari never was a ultra flexible like Firefox, so you're mostly stuck with that Apple includes. If you desire that flexibility and features you might just want to switch to Firefox full time.
posted by birdherder at 4:47 AM on September 7

I'm a great fan of 1Password, which integrates with Safari and "lets you see whether a password has actually worked before it asks if you want to save it". Initially it seemed like such a minor set of improvements on password handling, I was dubious it was worth paying for. Now, I don't know how I'd live without it.
posted by outlier at 5:04 AM on September 7

Ditto fro 1Password, I "hope" it will be the last password software I ever buy.
posted by silsurf at 8:19 AM on September 7