So How Are You Getting On With Safari Extensions?

It’s only been about three weeks since Safari 5 was released, and with it support for Safari extensions.

Since then I’ve been exploring all the delights posted at the Safari Extensions Tumblr and finding some really great stuff, and lots of ideas.

I’ve now got 10 installed extensions (see screenshot above) and I’m finding them all very useful. Some replace scripts and hacks I used to use on other browsers; there’s also quite a few extensions that replace the need to use certain bookmarklets.

The one I use most is probably Type-to-navigate, although that has recently been supplemented with Jack Mottram’s Hinter.

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I’m already so dependant on these extensions that I’d feel uncomfortable using Safari without them.

How about you? Have you explored extensions much? Found any fabulous hidden gems?

16 comments »

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Giles Turnbull is a freelance writer in England. He writes for the Press Association and The Morning News. He has a website you can ignore and a Twitter account you needn't follow.

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Posted in Opinions, Web |

http://www.howiesweb.com Howie Isaacks
Mine are working great. I’m so happy that Apple added this feature. My ad blocking extension has made my web browsing a lot more enjoyable.
http://www.keyboardkahuna.com/ Tom
To be honest, I deactivated all extensions for now. Safari was crashing dozens of times a day with any extensions active. Even if it’s an extension’s fault, the browser shouldn’t crash. Possibly might even open some attack vectors…
I’m still on Leopard, but since that’s still officially supported by Apple it should be as stable as Snow Leopard.
I’m waiting for Safari 5.1 and hoping it’ll solve the problems.
Spike
Still waiting for an update for ClickToFlash that plays nice with extensions. So far I’ve seen several extensions that climb as high as “nice to have” on the desirability scale, but ClickToFlash is essential.
http://www.pimpmysafari.com Scott Jangro
It’s interesting to see people report Safari crashing with extensions (mostly on twitter.) I test dozens of extensions every day and at any given time have 10-20 of them active. I don’t get any crashing during normal use.
I do sometimes get a crash or hang during the install/uninstall process, but that’s pretty much it here.
Maybe there are a few bad ones out there that I don’t happen to be running. Need to do some inquiring to see which extensions are the cause.
Ricardo Alves
My safari also crashes like crazy since i enabled extensions on day 1!!
I am using Snoe Leopard on a hardly over a year old macbook!
I am not the most tech savy of people but i am with most i am disabling them until it becomes more mainstream and less experimental
all it does it crash browser and my safari rejects them and they never show up nor work. it is not really still worth the trouble
Spike
To elaborate on my previous comment, I’ve sampled a few extensions without ClickToFlash and had no problems, and Safari 5 with ClickToFlash works great with extensions disabled. The combination of ClickToFlash and extensions is lethal, however. Just about any page with Flash elements craters Safari in this configuration. So until this problem is resolved, I won’t be using extensions.
LD
My Safari crashes predictably on certain sites, Lifehacker.com for example. That’s true only if I have Extensions enabled it seems. I’ve just stopped visiting their site and any site in their company. I haven’t been able to narrow down if there is a specific extension or combination that causes the crash, but it happens reliably every time.
Gazoobee
I can give some insight into which extensions are causing the crashes because I don’t have any need for most extensions and only have one installed.
AdBlock 2.0.9 (“A port of Adblock for Chrome for Safari”) is the culprit.
At least, it pretty much has to be the chief suspect. Before extensions and installing the Adblock one, I had maybe one crash a year on Safari, afterwards, three to five a day and sometimes more.
The only alternative is that Safari 5 is so full of bugs that it crashes five times a day and that just isn’t likely.
LD
@ Gazoobee: That seems to be the culprit! I haven’t done extensive testing, but disabling it allowed Lifehacker to not crash my browser. Enable it an reload, CRASH!
http://Iamscottharris.com Scott Harris
I have to say that I frikin love the extensions. Being an avid user of google reader, I really enjoy having all the options for it right in my application. No more growl or net news fire. The add to greader, feeds button with number, and the custom style changed (helvitireader and more) are all making my safari experience even better than before.
Darwin
Too many crashes with extensions enabled. Too bad.
DCJ001
I’m using extensions with Click To Flash on Snow Leopard on a 2007 MacBook and I have had no problems and no crashes whatsoever.
If you’re having a problem, I believe that the problem exists with a conflict with Ad Block or some other software/plug in.
Gazoobee
I should add that I also use Click to Flash (the plugin not extension), so if there is in fact a conflict that’s caused by the intersection of that and the Adblocker extension it would be the same symptoms on my computers also.
It’s just that Click to Flash has been around for a while and the Adblocker extension is a quick dirty port of the Chrome one, so it’s way more likely to be the Adblocker.
Ernst
Crashes, super slowness. Turned them off, and now I’m a happy sailor.
SirSteven
In a sentence, I’ve found them to be even more limited than Chrome extensions, which are, in turn, very limited compared to Firefox’s. Eg: there’s no possible means of a download manager as a Chrome Extension, and the same goes for Safari. It seems Safari hasn’t yet gotten what it really, really needs – in my view, anyway – which is some kinda tab control extension (is it even doable, within their restrictions?), to stop new tabs flying off to the right.
Having abandoned Safari for Chrome (for Mac) a few months ago, I was keen to try Safari’s extensions, but they’re not going to get me off of Chrome (FF is, sorry to say, way to slow to get me back anytime soon).
Jason
My Safari disables extensions every time I shut down. It’s too much of a pain to re-enable every time I start it.