Apple Releases Safari 5.0.3

Apple today updated its Safari web browser to version 5.0.3. While ultimately a minor release, the update does bring some key improvements to the browser. Perhaps the biggest gripe I’ve had to date with Safari 5 is the “Top Hit” auto-fill option in the url bar. While I understand the premise of this feature, the inability to disable it, as well as its common inaccuracy frequently annoyed me. Though Apple has still not provided an easy way to disable the feature, 5.0.3 does seem to improve search accuracy. In initial tests, Top Hit seemed to do a better job of pulling up more relevant pages.

The update also provides more accurate results in Top Sites, corrects issues with Flash 10.1, provides better pop-up blocking, and includes a series of bug fixes and performance enhancements. The update is available to all Safari users running the latest versions of either Mac OS X 10.6 or Mac OS X 10.5.

For Mac OS X 10.4 users, Apple has released Safari 4.1.3 which contains many of the aforementioned features. Both updates can be obtained via Software Update or downloaded from Apple’s site here.