CRM FYI

Internet connection speeds have evolved in recent years to blinding speeds.  Today, we’re used to information delivered fast.  But what is your patience threshold?  How impatient do you get waiting for your browser to render the content you want to see?

I often resort to finger tapping or humming a little tune while waiting for my browser to render.  It seems though, that I have less time for humming and tapping since trying out the new beta version of Apple Safari for the PC.

Since Steve Jobs introduced Safari at WWDC, there’s been a lot of talk about why anybody who’s not on the Mac platform would want to use Safari over good browser options like Firefox.  Render speed may be one reason for me to at least keep at least one Safari window open, depending on what type of work I’m doing.

In truly unscientific tests, I’ve compared Safari, Firefox, and IE on the same PC hardware.  Head to head, Safari was leaps ahead of the competition loading record details, switching records in the console, and walking through Salesforce Setup and Customization.  I don’t have exact timing, but in many cases, it was rendering at about twice the speed of the competition.  Such performance gains make me tempted to keep Setup open in Safari, just to sail through Salesforce administration faster. 

I’ve read mixed reviews of people’s trouble installing Safari on Windows, but I got it in and running with no issues on Windows XP Professional and Home.  You can download Safari from Apple.

There are some things I’d miss if I tried to use Safari entirely, like Sxipper, Firefox Extensions, and things like custom buttons.  I’d also miss color.  Safari’s toolbars are almost entirely monochromatic so they’re clean, but almost too sterile looking.  But as with most Apple products, it’s functional and pretty intuitive.  If screen real estate is what you want, Safari delivers with minimal space required for most of the browser functions you’ll need.

If you like cruising through work, it’s worth taking a look at Safari and seeing if it’s right for you.  It may not become your primary browser, but it’s worth having on hand when speed counts.

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