Safari 4: Leaving smaller data trail, eating more system resources?

At the end of May, Blorge took an in depth look at the extensive data and privacy trail Safari 4 beta left in its wake. Now, with the Safari 4 final in our hands, we pop the hood once again to see if any improvements have been made.

The last time I spent time trolling through the data trail left behind by Safari 4, nearly 4.5GB was uncovered and trashed. Moreover, we discovered that Safari’s automatic cache and history clearing functions didn’t work as advertised, and also that the browser was keeping a hidden visual record, in duplicate no less, of every single Web page visited in a hidden folder buried deep inside OS X.

So, now that Safari 4 final (see also: Safari 4: What’s new in Apple’s trendsetting WebKit-based browser) is here, what if anything has changed?

First off, manually clicking “Clear History” under the History menu appears to work, though it’s quite slow. Further, although I’ve set Safari to clear history items more than two weeks old, I’m doubtful that’s happening as that folder was home to more than 10,000 files when I checked.

That said, those files could have been a backlog built up by Safari 4 beta that won’t be repeated now that Safari 4 final is on the job. Fingers crossed.

Another place where an unseen though nonetheless unsightly scum had built up was in ~/Library/PubSub/Feeds/. A return visit found 45,619 files occupying 182.2MB, compared “just” 42,685 weighing 170MB the last time I check at the end of May. I have again expunged these files and hopefully they won’t return.

The elephant has left the room?

Another apparent bit o’ good news is that the huge cache—over 4GB of image files on my Mac—located in /private/var/folders/et/etuAKaR1GTeV9DVeRGfst++++TI/-Caches-/com.apple.Safari/Webpage Previews/ (your file path will vary starting at /et/) now appears to be gone from its hiding place in a hidden folder deep, deep in the OS X’ bowels. Safari was keeping one .jpg and one .png file for every site visited on the odd chance you would select it as a Top Site.

I don’t know where Safari’s storing these Top Site .jpg and .png files now. So, whether this once massive visual record is truly gone or just gone someplace isn’t clear. Nevertheless, there’s nothing there now—good riddance.

Tip: Check out Slashdot’s Show hidden files in Mac OS X Finder tutorial

However, the lads over at MacFixIt noticed that Safari 4 final uses an inordinate amount resources. They felt this was the case and then confirmed it by watching Safari’s behavior in OS X’s Activity Monitor (Utilities -> Activity Monitor).

Happily, this is something I’m not seeing. Safari 4’s CPU and memory usage are both under control, and I haven’t seen extended 50+ percent spikes.

Conclusion

With some of Safari’s more egregious housekeeping issues apparently behind us (knock on faux laminate fiber board), all in all I’m pleased with the changes brought to the table by version 4.0 final. Granted, I would like the choice of putting tabs back on top and using a more attractive progress indicator, but those are petite pommes.

How are you feeling about Safari 4? A little more secure or is it eating system resources like there’s no tomorrow? Sound in the comments below…

• Safari 4 beta leaves data, privacy trail in its wake
• Safari 4: What’s new in Apple’s trendsetting WebKit-based browser
• Mac, Safari, Firefox shares all show growth
• What’s new in Safari 4; what works and what doesn’t
• How to: Copy Link HTML Tag in Apple’s Safari