I stumbled upon Shiira a few weeks ago, just passing it off as another web browser. “There’s already Safari, Firefox, Opera, and Camino on my MacBook,” I thought to myself. “Why do I need another Internet browser?”

I gave Shiira a chance. And what a delightful experience it has been. Sometimes I feel like Mozilla Firefox gets way to cluttered with toolbars and extensions. Shiira has a simple interface, Mozilla power, and cool innovations.

Shiira 1.2.2

Download Shiira 1.2.2 from here.

Shiira 1.2.2 was the latest stable Internet browser when this post was written. Shiira 1.2.2 boasts a simple interface. The Sidebar houses bookmarks, history, even downloads tabs. A great all in one interface right there. I can toggle the sidebar by clicking it’s icon in the top right corner. There is a Google search bar and tabbed interface too.

Import Bookmarks from Firefox and Safari

I can even import my bookmarks from Mozilla Firefox and Safari by Selecting Shiira : Preferences from the top left in the menubar. A preference pane pops up. Select the Bookmarks icon. Select either Firefox or Safari for the Bookmarks bar and the Bookmarks menu.

Shiira 2.0 Beta

Download Shiira 2.0 from here.

Shiira 2.0 is a bit unstable but looks fantastic. The tabbed interface has been replaced by a Page Dock that is at the bottom of the browser window. I can switch back to regular tabbed browsing in the preferences. Most other preferences were greyed out in the release I downloaded. I must remember this is a beta and still in the works. Bookmarks and History have moved to sleeker floating windows. Bookmarks, History, and Downloads can all be found in one place in the new Shelf, a replacement for the Sidebar.

One great innovation is the kiosk mode, that operates a lot like Expose. If I click the kiosk icon in the lower right, all of my tabs will appear as tiles on the screen, detailing the design of each site.

Fullscreen mode is a welcome addition to Shiira 2.0 as well.