The nice thing about Safari, which is now up to version 2.0.4 and will be updated yet again early next year when Apple releases Mac OS X 10.5 "Leopard," is that it comes out of the box with just about every feature you'll need to cruise along on the Web safely and securely. It's also only for Macs, so Windows and Linux fans, you're out of luck.

Safari uses strong 128-bit encryption when accessing secure sites. Pop-up ad blocking is easily enabled, as is tabbed browsing -- with each tab having its own "close" button. It has a built-in RSS reader so you can subscribe to RSS feeds for speedy tracking of sites and stories you're interested in. Safari's Web rendering is based on the KDE project's open-source KHTML layout engine, and I've found it to be as fast as any other browser in Mac land.

The built-in search engine is Google, and it has a handy snapback feature incorporated in that search field. Let's say you've entered a few search terms, landed on a page with hundreds of links and clicked on so many of them that you're not sure how to get back to your original search. Rather than retracing steps you've already taken, just click on the orange snapback icon and it immediately takes you back to your list of Google links.

Think easy. Think intuitive.

Safari emerged in Apple land in January 2003 -- about the same time Microsoft decided to stop development of IE for the Mac. At the time, browser development for Mac OS X was an oft-neglected backwater, although the Mac-only OmniWeb showed promise -- and still does. But you have to pay for that one, and in this day of free-is-good, having Apple's developers come up with their own take on browsing was a Godsend.