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February saw the public release of Safari 4 Beta—the latest update to Apple’s own browser. There were a couple of complications for some people, but for the majority, Safari 4 looked a nice improvement. Little would we release that it would keep track of each and every site we visited, regardless of our preferences.

I had been using Safari 4 from its release until last week. I reverted back to Safari 3 as a result of some compatibility issues with certain websites. Being in beta testing, this was expected.

You may recall a popular feature, Top Sites. This useful tool showed you thumbnails of your most visited websites, and also notified you when one of those sites had been updated. Viewing your browsing history had also received a face lift, allowing you to browse through recently visited websites in a cover flow style. It’s one of those features you enjoy, but don’t think much about its implications.

The fact is that for each website you visit, Safari 4 beta stores two screenshots. One is a thumbnail, and the other is a full resolution grab. They’re for our viewing pleasure when trying to find that website from this morning, or seeing what’s new for my top sites. But when you think about it, you may visit your usual 10-15 websites daily, plus any funny links, news stories etc… Let’s say you visit 50 websites a day. That’s two screenshots for each, one of which is at full resolution. See where this is going? The memory Safari 4 beta requires to store these screenshots is crazy. C. Harwick, a designer and musician, claimed Safari 4 had over 2GB of screenshots of each website he had visited since downloading the beta. That may seem little, but its 2GB that could be used elsewhere, certainly not for pointless screenshots. The folder for the thumbnails used with the top sites feature was over 200MB.

You may also be aware of the Private Browsing function. You know, to stop your better half from seeing your plans for her birthday…as though anyone would use it for anything else. Well, you’d better hope they’re not tech-savvy, because it would seem Safari 4 doesn’t play ball. I mentioned that the beta release stores two screenshots of each website you visit? Well this also applies even with Private Browsing mode switched on.

You can find a couple of tips for removing the screenshots here. There’s still no word on its official full release; we’ll likely hear something at WWDC.

Via [Cult of Mac]