What are the best Safari plugins?

June 24, 2007 1:26 PM

What are the best Safari plugins?

I recently bought my first Mac, a MacBook, and now I've switched to Safari. What are some Safari plugins that I should be using? Preferably free. Mac OS X Tiger, 10.4.10, Safari 3.0.2 Beta. I've seen some related threads on here, but they're kind of old, and there's no mention of Safari 3 Beta.

Two things specifically, but really anything that would be useful.
1. Something that would give me more control over tab behavior
2. An ad-blocker

Thanks very much.

posted by jroybal to Computers & Internet (15 answers total)

Saft.

Also the website that hosts the Saft description is called 'Pimp my Safari'. It should be able to point you in the direction of more of the same.
posted by dance at 1:29 PM on June 24, 2007

Not exactly a plugin, but Inquisitor (for searching) is an awesome addition to Safari (unfortunately no support for Camino that I would rather use).
posted by anonetal at 1:39 PM on June 24, 2007 [1 favorite]

I've been using PithHelmet for some time now and love it. 10$ shareware but from what I remember no restrictions on the un-regestered version.
posted by Captain_Science at 1:45 PM on June 24, 2007

I've had reliability problems with PithHelmet for long enough that I finally gave it up. Lots of things seem to make it crash the browser, and according to the guy who makes the thing there isn't much he can do to make it less crashy. Privoxy is now my ad blocker of choice since it works with all browsers and never crashes.
posted by majick at 2:01 PM on June 24, 2007

I use SafariBlock to block ads, but unfortunately, it seems to be having problems in Safari 3.0.x. There may be an update soon though. Keep it in mind for the future.
posted by chillmost at 2:04 PM on June 24, 2007

Saft.
posted by dobbs at 2:08 PM on June 24, 2007

I've had good luck using Saft and this CSS file to block ads on Safari 3.0, and I would assume it would work the same on 2.0. I was using PithHelmet, but it is not compatible with Safari 3.

Oh, and Inquisitor rocks.
posted by qwip at 2:46 PM on June 24, 2007

Have you tried Camino browser? It has many of the features you expect from Firefox if you came from Windows (except for the add-ons).

I like Sogudi for Safarai. It allows keyword searches in the address bar. Unfortunately, it and PithHelmet don't work yet with Safari 3 beta which is why I haven't made the upgrade.
posted by junesix at 3:41 PM on June 24, 2007

Any of you Safari wizards know of a good place to learn how to write a Safari plugin? The only thing keeping me tied to Firefox is the PasswordMaker plugin...
posted by dmd at 5:47 PM on June 24, 2007

I'm really confused by the Saft website. How the hell do i download it?
posted by phaedon at 6:26 PM on June 24, 2007

Sogudi is one of those things that is so excellent that any browser I use that lacks it seems broke,
posted by nowonmai at 6:41 PM on June 24, 2007

second pith helmet.
posted by krautland at 7:51 PM on June 24, 2007

I'm really confused by the Saft website. How the hell do i download it?

Go here and pick the one you want for version 3 beta, or the normal version for Safari 2. Saft downloads are in two flavours: Demo and purchased. It's worth the purchase.
posted by qwip at 3:25 AM on June 25, 2007

Any reason you switched to Safari instead of Camino or Firefox? I ask because my experience with my 10.4.10 Macbook gave me problems with some graphics files coming up properly in Safari. I also found that my web pages more closely mirrored what Windows IE users would see when I chose Firefox as my browser.

If you do decide to stick with Safari, though, Safaristand is another add-on to try.
posted by misha at 4:35 PM on June 25, 2007

If you're used to Firefox and like it stick with Firefox on Mac. I tried Safari, pretty extensively, and Camino, but the lack of the plug-ins that I wanted and the tab management sent me back to Firefox. I realize it's slower browser, at least theoretically, but it's still the best browser for me by far. I think anyone used to the extensive customization available with Firefox is going to find the other choices on Mac sub-par.
posted by 6550 at 11:34 PM on June 25, 2007