Continuing where my last blog left off, another great choice for people looking for an alternative web browser is Apple's Safari web browser.

The latest version, 3.1.1, was recently released, and continues to be among the fastest web browsers available.  This release rivals Firefox 3 in terms of performance.  It's fast.

For example, when typing a new forum post using Safari, click the Preview button and see how fast the popup window animates open.  Both Safari and Firefox do it very quickly.

Safari is one of four web browsers I test when developing new features at Lottery Post, so if you decide to use Safari, it will be compatible with Lottery Post.

The download page for Safari is: http://www.apple.com/safari/download/

A few tips for installation:

• Forget about installing the Bonjour service.  Un-check the checkbox for Bonjour in the installation wizard.  It just adds unnecessary overhead to your PC.
• I always turn off the Apple update service, because it's a little intrusive for my likes.  It can also be un-checked during installation.
• One thing that bugs me is when a browser's default configuration is to hide the tab bar.  I like to see the tabs, even if there is only one tab open.  To make this happen on Safari, click the Show Tab Bar option in the View menu when you open the browser.  (I'm not sure why Apple did not make this an option in the Preferences window.)

Safari probably supports more of the upcoming HTML/CSS features of any browser out there, making it an interesting choice.

It also has a very different look than regular Windows, so that will be either a really big plus or negative, depending on how you like the look.