Bend Safari to your liking
know your location
By default, Safari abbreviates the current page’s address, and doesn’t say where a link will take you. Choose View > Show Status Bar to have the destination of the link under the pointer shown at the bottom left of the window, and turn on “Show full website address” in Safari’s Advanced preferences.
Tame notifications
Some sites ask to send you notifications. Generally, avoid allowing this. If a site flings too many your way, disable them for it (or all sites) in Safari > Preferences > Websites > Notifications.
Edit website settings
In the Websites section of Safari’s preferences, select one of the categories from the sidebar. You’ll see settings for currently open websites, as well as closed yet already configured ones. The latter can be adjusted using the menus here, without you having to visit the websites in question.
Set global defaults
At the bottom of each category in the Websites section, with the exception of Notifications, is a menu labeled “When visiting other websites.” Use this to set a default for websites you haven’t manually configured – for example, to have Reader activate by default on all sites, unless otherwise stated.
Prevent tracking
In the Privacy section of Safari’s preferences is the new “Prevent cross-site tracking” setting. Activated by default, it stops advertisers following you around the web, and should mean shop adverts no longer appear everywhere after you check out a product of interest.
Use extensions
It’s worth investigating the Extensions tab in Safari’s preferences; though extensions aren’t new, there are always new ones appearing in Apple’s gallery ( to add functionality you need, such as address shorteners, web clippers, and other search engines.