I'm not sure whether it is WebKit or the way Apple uses WebKit but something is definitely amiss with Safari for Mac.
I stopped using Safari, moving the Chrome, when it was clear that it continues to use huge amounts of real memory (even with an extension like ClicktoFlash) and at times brings my iMac to a standstill as often as Safari itself gets in a tizzy and decides to force reload all my open tabs.
Which is a pity as I much prefer the Safari UI over Chrome's, Safari Reader over Readability, and Safari's inbuilt PDF rendering.
Chrome does at least provide a consistent service although I don't like using the address space for both URLs and searches, and printing seems archaic with its own print panel (but it does a better job at rendering web pages for printing than Safari much of the time).
Apple just seems to have lost its way with Safari and definitely is a long way from the 'just use it' mindset.
Regards,
Tony
Sent from my iPad