Top 10 Safari Plugins for Business Users
Mac users love all the sexy software features available for Macs, so it’s no surprise that Safari comes with equally attractive browser add-ons. Whether you want to search faster, share easier, or surf safer, these 10 Safari plugins will help you do it in style.
Free
SafariStand is like the one-stop-shop plugin for Safari, combining many of the coolest features from your favorite browser add-ons. With SafariStand you can search as you type, turn tabs into graphical thumbnails that appear in a sidebar, switch tabs via a single-key shortcut, color-label bookmarks, and more. You can even alter Web pages to remove flash ads, choose custom style sheets, and use other features that are similar to Firefox’s popular plugin Greasemonkey.
$12
Saft’s main feature is ad/banner blocking, but it also comes with a whole bunch of other features that’ll make your life easier. Some of these features include history and bookmark search, tabs you can drag, URL shortcuts, full-screen browsing, a nifty sidebar, and more.
Free
As if you needed more excuses to Tweet. Safari140 makes Tweeting a snap by allowing you to Tweet from any Web page. It automatically shortens URLs, auto-fills links to the site you’re currently viewing, and posts directly to Twitter without having to go through Twitter.com.
$10
Give your tired eyes a rest from the constant glare of online ads with this powerful ad-blocking plugin. PithHelmet automatically blocks most ads, and it also allows you to customize settings and set rules on a site-by-site basis for blocking additional advertisements, animations, and scripts that slip by the default settings.
Free
Are you a chronic online sharer? If so, simplify your addiction with Shareaholic, a plugin that lets you quickly and easily e-mail, share, and bookmark Web pages from more than 60 services, including Facebook, Twitter, Gmail, Yahoo!, and Digg. (Shareaholic is also available for Explorer, Chrome, and Firefox.)
30 day free trial; $39.95 single-user license
Can’t keep track of all your passwords? Keep them all in one secure spot with 1Password, a plugin/application that stores passwords, forms, and more. 1Password lets you fill out login fields with one simple click and even comes in a mobile version for iPhone OS and Palm OS.
Retrospective
Free
In a single workday you probably visit 50 Web pages or more. Who has time to bookmark every Web site that contains a single piece of useful information? Retrospective allows you to quickly locate a Web page whose address you’ve forgotten without having to search through your browsing history. As long as you can remember a word, phrase, or even an image, Retrospective will search Safari’s cache and find the missing Web page for you.
PDF Browser Plugin
Free for home use; $69 for five-user license
Downloading PDFs can become both time-consuming and annoying when you have to leave the browser up to view them. PDF Browser Plugin simplifies this process by letting you choose whether you want to view PDFs in or out of the browser. If you decide to view within the browser, you’ll have access to many of the same viewing features (such as zoom and page layout) as you would in the traditional viewing pane.
Word Browser Plugin
Free
The developers of PDF Browser Plugin also provide a nifty Word Browser Plugin that allows you to preview Word, RichText Format, OpenDocument, and OpenXML documents inside the browser window -- even if you don’t have MS Word installed. This helpful plugin also lets you print and save Word documents from within Safari.
Free
CoolIris makes surfing the Web not only faster, but fun. This cinematic-like experience allows you to zip through previews of Web pages, videos, and images by scrolling through a 3D wall. Features such as drag-and-drop sharing and the ability to scroll through your own hard drive files add even more functionality. The only way you can truly understand just how cool CoolIris is is to see it for yourself.
