Apple’s new Safari 5 brings support for browser extensions, which the company plans to showcase on its own gallery in a few months. In the meantime, we’ve compiled a list of some of our favorites.
To learn more about using Safari, check out our Safari 101 screencast on TechUniversity (subscription required).
Web & Utilities
AdBlock
The AdBlock extension is a great way to remove unwanted content from your browsing experience. Download the extension and load your web pages without as many intrusive ads. There’s even beta options to remove Google ads and YouTube ads.
BuiltWith Analysis
The BuiltWith Analysis extension provides an insider look into a website with one click. You can see what JavaScript libraries a site uses, who provides analytics as well as other nitty-gritty details that are totally public, but often obscured in tons of HTML source code.
Invisible Status Bar
Google’s Chrome browser does away with the status bar at the bottom of your window and only shows it when you hover over a link. The Invisible Status Bar extension does the same thing for Safari!
Live CSS Editing
The Live CSS Editing extension provides a quick way to load up a page and test modifications to the CSS in real time.
Bit.ly Shortener
The Safari Bit.ly Shortener extension makes it easy to shorten a URL with Bit.ly. Simply load the URL in your browser and then click the button!
PageSaver
The Svay.com PageSaver extension will, in one click, save the visible portion of a web page as an image and automatically download it into your Downloads folder.
ScribeFire
ScribeFire is an extension for using a centralized place for posting to all of your blogs, supporting a variety of typical blog features including formatting, categories and tags. ScribeFire’s Safari Extension brings support for this right into Safari.
Snapper
Similar to PageSaver, Snapper also saves the currently viewable portion of a website as a PNG and automatically downloads it for you.
Type to Navigate
The Type to Navigate extension is pretty darn cool. If you’re browsing a page and there’s a link you want to follow, just start typing any word that’s contained within it. It’ll highlight the link and then you just press Return to load it. If it’s not the right link, press Command + G to move to the next one.
E-Commerce
Amazon.com Search Bar
If you frequent Amazon.com, you’ll want the Amazon.com Search Bar extension. It’ll add a new Amazon.com bar to Safari giving you one-click access to your shopping cart, wish list, the latest deals and a quick way to search Amazon.com.
InvisibleHand
The InvisibleHand extension will subtly let you know when it finds a cheaper price to a product elsewhere on the Internet. The list of supported retailers is fairly decent for the U.S., UK and Germany, but more are being added frequently.
Social
FaceBlock
The FaceBlock extension blocks all of the annoying ads on Facebook. I always feel a little sadness for the advertisers that are paying for impressions that I never have to see. Oh well.
safari140
This gem of an extension allows you to post directly to Twitter from within Safari. Links are automatically shortened by is.gd.
Share with Facebook
The Share with Facebook extension gives you one-click access to share your current URL with your Facebook account.
Webbla
If you use Webbla for managing your bookmarks, take a look at the Webbla browser extension, which allows you to quickly add or modify them.
YouTube Full Screen
This extension is a great way to enable full-screen support of YouTube videos if you’re using YouTube’s HTML5 player instead of its Flash player.
Productivity
Background Tabs
The Background Tabs extension will allow you to open a new tab in the background by simply pressing the V key.
Gmail Checker
The Gmail Checker extension will give you an icon and badge in your Safari toolbar to show unread messages on your Gmail account. Keep an eye on their website for updates because the next version will support Google Apps users.
GoMBoX
The GoMBoX extension transforms your Google Images experience by showcasing results in a Lightbox overlay, allowing you to see larger versions without having to leave your search results page.
Instapaper
If you love Instapaper, check out Instafari, a simple one-click way to save an article to your Instapaper account.
InstaPaper Greystyled and Article Tools
The Greystyled and Article Tools extensions provide you with a cleaner style for your Instapaper.com account. Once the extension is installed, just visit instapaper.com to see the changes.
Google Reader – Simplified
If you’re a fan of Google Reader and the GreaseMonkey scripts that give it a simplified look, check out Lucidica, an extension that’s based off Helvetireader.
Safari Reload Button
If you’ve ever wanted to move the reload button for Safari out of the URL window and into its own button, the Safari Reload Button extension does just that.
Search Preview
With the Search Preview extension, you can preview the web pages that show up in your search results. This extension works with Google, Bing and Yahoo.
Toodlethings
If you use Toodledo for your task management, the Toodlethings extension re-styles the web interface with clean buttons and easier to read fonts.
For more great extensions, check out the Safari Extensions blog and keep an eye on Apple.com for its showcase that’s scheduled to premiere later this summer.
Have you written your own extension or found others? Share them in the comments below!
The google reader extension is very nice…
http://up2share.com/file/572ks8eyh_Captura%20de%20pantalla%202010-06-09%20a%20las%2013.55.44.png
It is about time. I dumped Safari years ago for Firefox. I would go back for a short period every now and then, to only realize I really miss the Firefox Add-Ons. Safari may be too late to the game on this one. It is a rare instance of apple miscalculation.
How is this an Apple miscalculation? Positioning Safari as a dominant web browser on the OS X platform isn’t a top priority for Apple. As far as the web goes, Apple is more concerned with people adopting HTML 5 than people using their browser because the content is more important (see: profitable) to Apple than a browser they give away for free.
What Apple just released in Safari 5 is a nicety that underscores what HTML5 can do. Your belief that Safari “may be too late to the game” or that Apple miscalculated are completely irrelevant to Apple’s intent with Safari.
Just grabbed FaceBlocker and Google Reader – both work flawlessly and I recommend them.
BUT – when can we expect to see more?
Good list thanks. One random thought that comes to mind is the advent of the ad blockers. How prevalent will those become? And what does it mean for the advertising industry? Can blockers be tracked via analytics? Lots of big questions here considering the pivotal role advertising has paid in the growth of the web.
I built a quick Safari 5 extension based on the excellent Open Source Greasemonkey Netflix Queue Sorter script done by Maarten van Egmond.
Amazingly enough I didn’t have to change his original code to make it work.
See,
http://3a2d29.com/awesome-greasemonkey-netflix-queue-sorter-for
The Amazon Search Bar extension, which unlike any of the others required quitting Safari, deleted all my other extensions. Thanks a lot, guys.
Why does the Amazon search extension require an installer? I have installed several extensions, painlessly, with a double-click. Why an installer for this one?
How do I install any of this extensions to Safari on a PC?
Ahmad, I discovered this just now, instructions in the info window are wrong. It’s easy:
1- general menu/ show menu bar (if it’s hidden, the text menu bar at the top)
2 – Develop / activate extensions *
3 – Now download and install as usual.
Am I the only one who doesn’t bother with extensions?
Always seemed like a pain in the ass to manually update your extensions after a new version of the browser was released.
You do know that Safari comes with a extension updater built in right?
Amazon Search Bar extension is trying to be clever by automatically enabling extensions if you have them disabled (default) and installing the extension. See screenshot: http://imgur.com/NJDTC.png