The Safari 4 Beta brought some much needed improvements to the browser, and the changes are noticable. The browser is snappier, more intuitive and has moved its relationship with the web standards to the next level. Great, except the tabs are frustrating to use at times.

Safari 4 tabs

When clicking between tabs, roughly 1/3 of the time I end up very subtly triggering its “dragging” action, instead of bringing the tab to focus. So over time I learnt to expect that to happen and try to click a second time in fairly quick succession.

This works most of the time, except when I click it too quickly the second time it minimises the browser. Useless functionality if you ask me. I’m not convinced the whole double-clicking to minimise is that useful, or even desired that often. Any way you look at it, the tabs are far from ideal in their current state.

Update: Apple have since come to their senses and changed the tab behaviour in the updated versions of Safari.