So now, the latest Safari has been released with the full screen javascript APIs, it shouldn’t take to long for the others to catchup.

Now, I wouldn’t usually use the term catchup with regards to Safari, as lets be honest. It is never one of the usual suspects for innovation. WebKit yes, safari no.

After all, Safari was the last one in the fullscreen game. But it’s the first with a javascript API. It was introduced in WebKit nightlies back in January.

In my opinion this is great for a small number of websites, think videos / games / experiences. For websites I use on a daily basis, I doubt I will come across it much. But for the websites that I already arrive and then leave. This is going to become terribly annoying.

Why are they first? Apple make ‘glossy’ decisions.

Put it this way. There are so many reasons not to add a javascript API if you take a wholly ‘usability’ point of view. What if people add the code to bogus buttons. Think popup ads but worse. It’s a decision you have to go with, and see how it pans out.

Marketeers… Please don’t force people to do something they don’t know they are doing. Think autotweets!

If you want to this API in use, grab Safari 5.1b and visit my test page.