i have problem opening safari. most of the times, all i get is the annoying rainbow color spinning disc on a blank page. what is the cause of this problem and what is solution for it?

Most likely a third party plug-in issue > Safari: Unsupported third-party add-ons may cause Safari to unexpectedly quit or have performance issues

If your Safari won't open, one or more of the following procedures should fix it:

1. Go to Home/Library/Safari/ folder and remove the following two files:

history.plist

lastsession.plist

(Safari may not load properly If these two files are corrupted.)

and also go to Home/Library/Preferences and delete the file com.apple.Safari.plist

2. Go to Home/Library/Caches/Metadata/Safari/ and remove the [i]contents[/i] of that folder.

(These are just webhistory files and are not required for Safari to run. However, similar to preference files, problems can arise if they have become corrupt.)

3. Locate the cookies.plist file that's located in the Home/Library/Cookies/ folder and remove it.

(Again, faults in stored cookies may interfere with Safari's launch.)

4. Check whether any of your third-party internet plug-ins may be interfering with the launch of Safari by carefully moving them to the desktop (do NOT delete them at this stage). You can find these in two places:

Home/Library/Internet Plug-Ins/ folder, and Global plug-ins are located in the Macintosh HD/Library/Internet Plug-ins/ folder.

Also look in Library/Input Managers where other third party add-ons may lurk. If you find a SIMBL folder, please note that some SIMBLE.bundles may require updating or possibly removal. More information on third party add-ons here:

http://support.apple.com/kb/TS3230?viewlocale=en_US

Restart Safari and place them back in the correct folders, one at a time, closing and re-opening Safari each time. If you discover that one of them was causing the problem with launching Safari, trash it and download and install a fresh copy.

Note also that Safari does not accept any third party tool bars not supplied as part of authorised extension. If you have installed any of these, delete them, or post back for instructions on how to do so.

Not knowing what toolbar you are installed, try the following:

The CT toolbar/ct plugin

If you are running Tiger or Leopard:

Close Safari, then locate and delete the following files and it should be gone:

/Library/Application Support/Conduit

/Library/InputManagers/CTLoader

/Library/Receipts/ctloader.pkg

/Library/Receipts/<Toolbar name>.pkg

/Library/Application Support/SIMBL/Plugins/CT2285220.bundle

/Users/<User name>/Library/Application Support/Conduit

where / is the root library on your Hard Disk.

If you are running Snow Leopard you should also look here:

Library/launchAgents/com.conduit.loader.agent.plist

Library/Application support/conduit plugins

Also, as mentioned by Gilli2000:

Library/Receipts - If you read it, it has information in it at the bottom referring extensively to "CT" and "community toolbar".

Maybe it is harmless, but trash those items anyway!

If you are running Lion:

From the Finder Menu bar, select Go ▹ Go to Folder, and in the box that opens write:

~/Library/Application Support/Conduit

Delete the second item if it is there.

Now select Go to Folder again and enter /Library

From the folder that opens, delete the following items if they are there (you may need your login password):

Application Support/Conduit

InputManagers/CTLoader

LaunchAgents/com.conduit.loader.agent.plist

ScriptingAdditions/ct_scripting.osax

then close the folder. Now select Go to Folder again and write: /Applications/Toolbars

Delete that item and close the Finder windows you opened. Log out then log back in, and you should be rid of it.

Note: Safari does not support any third-party toolbars except those supplied as an extension to Safari via the Extension Gallery.

From contributor Fishifishi: How to uninstall the Nation Toolbar:

http://search.nation.com/faq.html

How do i uninstall Nation from Mac? (Safari, Firefox, Chrome)

1. Open Finder
2. Select Applications&#157;
3. run "Nation Toolbar Uninstaller.pkg".
4. Complete the steps and restart the browsers.

if you want to do the uninstall manully in FF you can use the below instructions:

*Attention FireFox 13+ user - homepage/newtab on uninstall is not removed
please follow these steps -

0.1. first uninstall Nation as detailed above
1. in the address bar type about:config
2. in the search box type homepage
3. you will see an item browser.startup.homepage
4. Right click on the item and press Reset
5. in the address bar type about:config
6. in the search box type browser.newtab.url
7. Right click on the item and press Reset
8. in the address bar type about:config
9. in the search box type keyword.URL
10. Right click on the item and press Reset

*Manual uninstall for Firefox
- if you are not Admin of your computer

1. Click the Firefox logo on the top left side (where the white arrow is)
2. Click Add-ons
3. Select Extensions on the left side
4. Find Nation and click the "Remove" button
5. it will ask you to restart firefox and you are done.