Safari won't connect to the internet (in a user-satisfying amount of time) but other browsers will

Just a few minutes ago I decided to fix Safari's slow connection to the Internet. I use Chrome and Firefox as daily browsers but when my Macbook Pro is on battery, I use ControlPlane to automatically switch default browser to Safari. But from time to time, I have noticed that Safari tend to struggle to connect.

It's not that it won't connect, but rather, takes AGES to do so. Which is fine when I am on power cord--I will just switch to Chrome. But deep down I know something is off and I should probably do something about it.

So I did some digging, and I found out many people have encountered the same problem: Safari slow to load web pages while other browser did not seem to have a problem.

Fixing the issue

In my case, I followed phlexa's advice, which is:

Whenever you experience issues with Safari, App Store, iTunes and any other service that uses the "same" WebKit, but seem to see no problem in Google Chrome or Firefox, it's good to check if you have your Proxies configuration clear.

Since occasionally Chrome (and Firefox) override these settings and making Apple's WebKit fail. And what do you know, that's exactly what happened in my situation.

To check this setting, I just go to Safari -> Preferences -> Advanced -> Proxies [Change Settings].

In retrospect, in the morning when I opened up Chrome, it also takes a little while to connect (but then no lags at all afterwards). And I did notice a little prompt in the lower-left corner that says "downloading proxy script" or something like that. I am not sure is these two things are connected but it is definitely worth mentioning.