If you like Safari, you'll like Shiira

Since we're talking about browsers today, I thought you might be interested in checking out a happy little "accident" called the Shiira Project. Shiira is a web browser based on Web Kit and written in Cocoa. The goal of the Shiira Project, says the author, is to create a browser that is better and more useful than Safari. Since Shiira uses the same rendering engine used by Safari pages look the same in both browsers. Even better, right now Shiira shares your bookmark environment with Safari so you can switch back and forth between both browsers while you try it out without having to worry about syncing bookmarks between the two.

So basically, what we have in Shiira is a web browser that looks and acts pretty much like Safari. So why bother? Well there are a few neat tricks Shiira can do that Safari can't. You should check out some of the feature list screenshots when you have a minute. The coolest one is "Tab Expose." Tab Expose is exactly what it sounds like... it uses Expose (preset to F8 by default) to tile all open browser tabs instead of just browser windows. It's a surprisingly handy feature that I implore Apple to add to Safari itself. Are you listening, Dave Hyatt?

Some background on the Shiira Project from the developer: "At first I was just trying to create a simple test application using Web Kit. I only intended to use Web Kit as the reference platform for a small and simple program. But I couldn't stop working on it and the application continued to grow bigger and bigger, far beyond my initial expectations. I've now changed my mind and decided to initiate a project to develop a full-featured web browser."

Shiira 1.0 is out now for Tiger/Safari 2.0 and Shiira 0.9.4 and 0.9.5 are for use with Panther/Safari 1.2/1.3. It's free and released under a revised BSD license.

If you're interested in checking out other alternative browsers - or reminiscing about browsers long gone, keep an eye on Darrel Knutson's Mac Web Browsers Past & Present page which keeps a pretty thorough list.

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Since we're talking about browsers today, I thought you might be interested in checking out a happy little "accident" called the...

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brian

Rough edges since it's so new, of course, but it looks great so far and shows great promise. I will definitely be keeping an eye on this one. Safari is great but there are some annoyances (yes, I *know* this .dmg has an app in it, that's the only thing that's *ever* in .dmg's!!!) and if this browser turns into something that is as good as safari but as customizable as firefox I will be most pleased. The fact that he's going so far as to create new, innovative features, like expose for tabs, is just amazing. The ony downside is I only have 10.3 at work and while 0.95 for Panther is neat, I don't think he'll be doing much more with it.

May 13 2005 at 1:44 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Laurie

Jay - your comments are spot on and I agree with you. Encouraging developers to be innovative without fear of getting squashed or consumed is a good thing and I didn't mean to imply otherwise.

May 13 2005 at 12:04 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

daggerquill

It's a surprisingly handy feature that I implore Apple to add to Safari itself. Are you listening, Dave Hyatt? Probably, he is. But here's an idea: why don't we encourage people to support these projects and the people who develop them, instead of encouraging Apple to once again take someone else's idea without compensating or even acknowledging the person. Personally, I'd rather not see Shiira go the way of Watson (Sherlock), Konfabulator (Dashboard), Rondezvous (Bonjour, because somebody finally sued), etc. Open and frank exchanges of ideas among communities of developers are one thing; outright plagiarism is another.

May 13 2005 at 11:27 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Thomas

I have to say this browser is MUCH faster than Safari for me. I'm guessing they'll add in RSS soon and do it better than Safari. I'm very interested to see what this browser comes up with next.

May 13 2005 at 9:52 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

bryan

i like the sidebar the little + sign for a new tab the tile tabs feature i dont like the look and feel, maybe just need to get used to it no support for RSS

May 13 2005 at 4:08 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Alex Serriere

Wow. The browser seems above average but the website is copied straight from a google translation: "All Web browser is enable to make a PDF document of a Web page" "To make clear it, Shiira adds a preference panel for the sidebar" and my personal favorite: "One more clicking shrinks image again"

May 13 2005 at 1:35 AM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply

Nice! I tend to prefer Firefox over Safari because I like having my bookmarks easily accessible in the sidebar, instead of in the bookmarks bar or that bookmarks page-tab thing like Safari. To the point, I like Shiira's sidebar drawer with bookmarks, history, and downloads. I think it's a great idea! And having Growl support built-in just makes it even more appealing to me. I look forward to seeing this project progress!

May 12 2005 at 11:21 PM Report abuse Permalink rate up rate down Reply