Safari 4 Beta

I downloaded the new Safari 4 Beta from Apple today. I’ve been using it for the afternoon. I have to say it is definitely, by far, the fastest browsing experience I’ve ever had. Even on our lowly T1 1.5mbps here at the office. I can’t wait to fire it up on my 8mbps cable at home.

Some new features:
Safari 1
Top Sites – at the click of a button, a grid of screenshots of your most frequently visited sites pops up. Quickly select and cool animation feature as the site loads.

Full History Search – Brings Cover Flow previewing to history browsing.

Basically, they’re taking the web from having a bunch of text based links, and turning them into visual previews. I love it. I’m visual. I remember what things look like, but struggle to remember names. I know faces. Not names. This is a step forward.

Just to reiterate, I can’t get over how fast it is.

Download it here for Mac or Windows.

UPDATE: Here’s Ars Technica’s early review of Safari 4.