But that’s a mistake.
Now, I’m just a guy who spends way too much time on the internet.
I just happen to prefer Safari.
Safari’s reader mode is perfection
The modern web is a nightmare to browse.
Multiple browsers offer reader mode, but Safari offers the best one in my experience.
Check theUse Reader when availableand the mode will trigger by default whenever you open articles on that website.
I cannot tell you how many previously unreadable websites became useful again after discovering this feature.
Arc offers one, as a beta tool, but it doesn’t work as well in my experience.
Neither program offer a setting to use reader mode by default for certain websites.
This is, for me, the main reason I prefer Safari.
Apple is, basically, a hardware company.
Google, meanwhile, is an ad company whose revenue model is based on collecting information about users.
Owning Chrome helps them in that mission.
(Arc doesn’t make money at the momentmore on that later.)
So, do I trust Apple?
The web client, by default, blocks cross-site tracking and can hide your IP address from trackers altogether.
Chrome, meanwhile, is going the other way.
The web app is rolling out an update to how extensions workcalled Manifest V3this summer.
Under the new specifications, extensions like theselike some privacy-protective tracker blockerswill have greatly reduced capabilities.
No big tech company can be trusted on privacy, but the incentives are clear.
And I have: it was my daily driver for nearly a year.
I liked it, but I’m back using Safari now.
To be honest, and I know this is unsatisfying, but it’s mostly about vibes.
I don’t debate that Arc is betterbetter than Chromeit is.
But ultimately, at a certain point, using Arc started to feel like a chore.
It’s glitchy, for one thing, but that’s to be expected of a beta product.
And I don’t care about all the AI features that have recently been added.
(I hope I’m wrong.)
Which isn’t to say that Apple is perfect on this.
It could happen, but it doesn’t feel inevitable.
And I’m aware this is feeling a bit like a rant.
I keep coming back to Safari, though, because it works well and stays out of my way.
For the most part, though, Safari is a tool that does its job efficiently.
I like it better than other browsers, and if you give it a chance, you might too.
