Did you set the extensions.zotero.httpServer.enabled hidden preference to true in Firefox? If so, that is probabling interfering with saving to Zotero Standalone.

I don't think the server settings are the problem (and I don't see that one in Firefox's about:config either). When toggled off then back on, the extension reports:

"Zotero Connector for Safari 2.999.1 is incompatible with the running version of Zotero Standalone. Zotero Connector will continue to operate, but functionality that relies upon Zotero Standalone may be unavaliable.

Please ensure that you have installed the latest version of these components. See http://www.zotero.org/support/standalone for more details"

My set-up:
Zotero standalone v. 3.0b2.1
Zotero Safari extension v. 3.0b1
Safari 5.1.1
OS X 10.6.8

Most of the time, the Zotero icon in Safari is a greyed-out Z in a circle, and on hover gives the "Zotero is online" message reported above. However it does work for some sites. For example, if I go to the Amazon link in this thread: http://forums.zotero.org/discussion/20035/getting-started-with-a-mac/
the Zotero icon turns into a book and I can successfully add that item to my library and the standalone will show it upon sync.

Not really sure what the issue is, but it means I have to flip over to Firefox to add things like blog entries.

(Still running the 2.1 Firefox extension which seems to be working fine with the standalone beta.)

OK, upgraded Firefox to the 3.0 beta and set the connector.enabled pref to false. Then went to Safari and toggled the extension off and on. No error message now. Also the icon on blog pages is a greyed out Z with a line through it and the hover text says "Zotero is Offline." Start up the standalone and the Z loses its line and hover text says that Zotero is online.

Now as long as I keep the Safari extension on, these sites will keep the icon greyed but without the line. Amazon will show me the book icon, even if I quit the standalone and toggle the extension off/on. (It may require a page reload after the extension is toggled though.)

In short it looks to me like the Safari extension doesn't work for "ordinary" sites, like blogs, and when on those sites either it needs to be toggled off/on in order to recognize that the standalone is running, as determined by the state of the icon. Sometimes it seems that loading pages it does recognize (Amazon) will alter the state of the icon on other pages, but sometimes not. For those recognized pages, the extension now works no matter whether the standalone is running or not.

The same situation seems to obtain when the firefox pref is set to true, so that doesn't seem to matter. And the Firefox extension works fine whichever way the pref is set too (though Amazon pages now seem to be prefixed with "Amazon.com:" when installed from firefox, but not from Safari).

I'll put it this way: with the exception of Amazon, my Zotero icon remains perpetually greyed out. So when I wrote "ordinary" I meant "not Amazon." This means that I can't add any of those non-Amazon sites to my collection.

(There are indeed other sites that the extension recognizes, like Library of Congress catalog entries, but I wasn't trying hard to find other Amazon-like sites.)

In contrast the Firefox plugin lets me add any site to my Zotero collection.

I have an array of extensions, so maybe some of them are getting in the way, though I have an array of plugins in Firefox too. Firefox also always has a Zotero button now. (On a Mac, btw.)

Ah, that's what it is!

That's a major difference in functionality that had me confused. The Firefox button is always available and working (even if it does a different thing from Safari's), and I expected the Safari button to be as well.

On that: isn't it possible to have the Safari button always active and default to "take snapshot"?

I see what you mean, but I would put it this way:

Both browser types give you a clear indication when Zotero has a special way to handle a site: Firefox has the URL-field icon; Safari has the changed button appearance.

That means to me that if Safari showed an unchanged Z icon, the user would know that it was just going to take a snapshot and not do anything special.

Since the two scenarios already work differently, I wouldn't worry about this further difference in behavior.

(To be honest, Firefox is not my usual browser and I didn't even realize there was something odd in the URL field. I never look there.)

Right, though it wouldn't be greyed out as it is now, though I suppose it could be grey-scale instead of colorful.

(And now that I think of it, the special book icon is pretty dull too, though I guess Apple is moving towards grey all over the place, huh?)

Not sure how Chrome does it. I only use that when I need Flash. :-)

OK. Here is my experience with the Safari connector. It worked on the first try with Amazon.fr On my ordinary library site I eventually managed to get it to work once, but haven't yet managed to repeat this. I was adjusting the "Authorization" parameters on the Zotero interface (on Mac, right click, select Zotero Preferences) when the Zotero icon changed to a book, and by clicking on it I registered the item correctly in Zotero standalone. A little bouncing window also appeared. I have been trying to repeat this but so far the icon refuses to change for other titles. No bouncing window. No new entry in the standalone. I will post again if I figure this out.

kermit666: That's planned.