Killer App: OmniWeb 5.5

Posted on September 27th, 2006 Posted by Kent Pribbernow

*Movie announcer voice*

“In a world…where one web browser looks and works just like any other…a small company with big ideas challenges an industry with a browser unlike any before.”



Ok, with that dramatic opening out of the way I’d like to introduce you to a product that I am crazy about…OmniWeb. Not excited by web browsers, you say? This browser may have you singing a different tune. OmniWeb has a few advantages over its contemporaries. Like its blazing speed, for starters. OmniWeb 5.5 actually renders web pages much faster than either Apple’s own Safari browser, or Mozilla derivatives like Camino and Firefox. Even more so on Intel Macs.

But what really appeals to me is this product is geared towards power users whereas the aforementioned browsers are designed solely for mainstream usage. For example, when visiting any web site, OmniWeb offers a Preferences feature that enables you to tweak and customize any personal settings related to that site such as cookie caching, pop-up blocking, scripting options, etc. This makes OmniWeb the perfect tool for web designers. It has proven to be a handy tool for me on many occasions.

Another feature I love is the sidebar tab viewer that replaces the venerable tabbed browser interface we are all accustomed to. Instead of a row of anonymous looking tabs that appear at the top of your browser window, OmniWeb displays tiny thumbnail images or snapshots of the web page you visit and displays them in order of retrieval. You can easily move these thumbnails around, placing visited sites in any order you choose.

Granted these aren’t world changing features. But they are done is such a way that is both innovative and useful to the end user. I encourage you to experience OmniWeb for yourself. It’s free to use unlicensed, and $29.95 for a fully supported license.

Technorati Tags: OmniWeb, OSX, Safari