Apple did a great job in creating the web browser Safari. I love this browser since day one. Safari is small, fast and offers a wonderful interface. But of course Safari isn't perfect. I hope with this web page I can reach some of the Safari developers to make some of my dreams come true.

Wish No.1 : Filter Bookmarks instead of searching for bookmarks

I love the bookmark manager interface, which is very similar to iTunes and the Adressbook.app. But I am a little surprised that searching through bookmarks is working in a different way. In iTunes there is no real searching of music files, it is a filtering-system: you type a name/artist/... of a song and iTunes shows you all songs which match your 'filter'. Therefore you are able to find a song very quickly. This is one of the biggest advantages of iTunes! So how about Safari? Safari has only a simple search dialog to find a bookmark by name or by URL. So my first wish is, that Safari gets a search field (filter field) for bookmarks, which works similar to iTunes.

Wish No.2 : Search/Filter Bookmarks & Visited Sites by content

Filtering bookmarks is great, especially when you have a lot of bookmarks. But this only helps you when you remember the bookmark name. But often I can only remember some content of that page, e.g. that there was a great tip in repairing something or a special offer... And often I didn't bookmark the page, so I need to travel through my last visited pages, a nightmare! Wouldn't it be great if you were able to search your bookmarks and your surfing history by content in the same way like Sherlock is working? You think this isn't possible? Then you should visit Serac Software and take a look at iRemember. iRemember is a great piece of software for MacOS 9 to search your visited sites by content! Searching your personal websites by content is like having your private Google!

Wish No.3 : Smart Bookmark Folders

Stopping at 'search by content' it like stopping at iTunes 2. What do you think about a bookmark folder which contains your last ten saved bookmarks...no matter where you have placed these bookmarks. Or how about a folder which contains all your webpage's you have bookmarked which contains the word 'apple' or 'mac'? Take a look at the smart play list system of iTunes and try to imagine what could be possible with a similar system which is build directly in a web browser: you tell Safari to bookmark a web page and Safari automatically places the bookmark in the right folder.

Wish No.4 : Bookmarking Search Forms to the Google Field

The Google search field is one of my favorites in Safari. But wouldn't it be great when there is a possibility to extend the Google search field of Safari with you personal favorite search forms? No I am not talking about a simple switching between Google, AltaVista and Yahoo. I dream of a system to add my own favorite search forms, e.g. I love to search in eBay; I love to search for DVDs at Amazon. When I surf through the web and I am finding a new great search engine I bookmark this webpage and every time I wish it could be possible to bookmark the page directly to my Google Search Field! You think this is not possible? But trust me, I know this is possible. ( Through my developing of my own written program, Ask the Web, a client for dictionary websites, I have analyzed hundreds of HTML-Forms, so I know what I am talking about. Of course it is not possible to add every type of form, specially forms which uses Java/Javascript or Session Cookies would be difficult to add. But most forms are simple GET & POST actions and these forms are very simple to add!)

Here's a little example with Amazon.com:

Wish No.5 : Safari & iLife

After I get Safari & iLife in my hands I was a little surprised that Apple didn't integrate Safari into iLife. But I am sure that this is just a question of time.
'Open With iTunes' is already implemented in Safari in the context menu when you click on a mp3-download link, but in my short test iTunes just tries to open the file remotely and stores a bookmark to that file. But if you want to add the file to the local iTunes library you have to download the file and add the file manually to the iTunes library. So what do you think if you were able to add the file direct in Safari to the iTunes library or directly to a special folder of your iTunes library. Safari would download the song and add it to your iTunes library!
Same idea for iPhoto! You see a lovely picture on a webpage? For example a funny shot on the homepage of your friend? Shift-click on the image to open the context-menu and choose 'Add Image to iPhoto' and tell Safari where to add the picture in the iPhoto library!

Wish No.6 : Autofill Forms (or Safari and the Addressbook)

Automatic entering of addresses in standard forms is a very useful feature which is integrated today in most browsers. But this feature in most browsers is very basic. Normally it is only possible to enter just one address to auto fill, but most people need at least two addresses: one at home & one at work! So why not remove this limitation!
Automatic filling address data should be possible by pressing a button, starting entering some text or by using the context menu. You should have the choice to enter your address, which is stored in Addressbook.app, or to enter an other address from Addressbook.app. But pleeeeeease Apple don't forget: there is some life outside of America, so please also keep in mind the form-field-names should also be checked for other languages (e.g. English='Street', German='Staße', French='rue',...).
Want a newsletter? Order a book? Register a shareware? Every time you need to enter your (and sometimes the email of your friend) email address. Once again, just shift-click on the email field to open the context menu and choose 'Fill Form with Email-Address'. Now you can easily access all email addresses from all accounts from Mail.app or simply make a short search in your Adressbook.app (I think popping up a small search-dialog, like the address dialog in Mail.app, would be a good idea.)

That's it! I hope my wish list is not to big :-) Have fun with Safari, Rob P.S.: How can you help? If you like my wish list, then please use the Safari bug report button and send Apple a note about my wishlist; send a message to mac news servers to help publishing this list; make postings in newsgroups,... Don't forget to place the link to the wish list: http://www.robs-world.de/software/safari P.S.2: please write something to my guestbook :-)

Update Feb 25, 2003:
MacNN posted a small note about my wish list. Thank you very much, I love this site! Wow! 3000 visiters in just one day...that's nice. And thank you all very much for the nice postings in my guestbook. Now I started a poll for my wishes :-) (Thanks to ThinkSecret.com for their great site & service!). To join the poll now, click here!

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