Manage & Switch Between Default Web Browsers Quickly with Objektiv for OS X

Between Chrome, Safari, Firefox, Canary builds, Opera, and the myriad of other apps, juggling between web browsers can be a pain. This is even more exaggerated since every browser wants to set itself as the default, and then, to go about changing the default web browser after the fact, you have to open Safari and dig around in it’s preferences even if you don’t want to use Safari. Frustrating right? If you feel that pain, Objektiv is for you, it’s a free app that makes switching between default web browsers in OS X extremely easy.

Objektiv gathers all browser apps on the Mac to reside as a menu bar item that makes managing the default extremely easy. That menu bar icon changes depending on which browser is currently set as the default. Then to switch between them, just pull down the menu item and select which browser you want to become the default, or use the accompanying hot-key keyboard shortcuts to instantly switch to a new default browser. There’s even an option to use a Command+Tab-style manager exclusively for web browsers, letting you quickly jump between them as necessary. It’s quick, out of the way, and so much faster than using each apps nag feature or poking in Safari’s preferences every time you need to swap.

For developers, designers, researchers, or anyone who does a decent amount of work in various web browsers, Objektiv is a must have app. It’s free, lightweight, and easy to use. Grab it, you’ll be happy you did.

• Download Objektiv for Mac OS X from Github

Oh one quirk: however it decides which apps are web browsers isn’t always accurate. In testing, Objektiv identified and added Evernote and mPlayerX as browsers, which they obviously aren’t. To toss out any false positives, hold down the “Option / ALT” key and select items in the menu to yank them out of the Objektiv drop down.

Thanks to Yohannes for the heads up