Webbrowser on the Mac: dillemma

A few weeks ago I bought my first Mac. It is a MacBook 13″ unibody and I take it to school practically every day.
First things I install on a new computer/new OS installation are things like a browser and an instant messaging application.

As a hardcore Firefox user on the PC, I of course chose to download Firefox for Mac OS X first. My first experiences with Firefox on Mac were: slow, sluggish and sucky.

The last few months I also was experimenting with Google Chrome on the PC. My first experiences on there were positive. It is a solid and damn-fast browser. (sidenote: Those ads on Google Chrome rule!).
So, second browser I installed on the MacBook was Google Chrome. The experiences with Chrome on the Mac were not any different as with Chrome on Windows. It is fast and solid.

But for my daily usage, something misses on Google Chrome. It sounds weird, but I can’t describe what is actually missing. Also, I don’t like the idea/fact that my traffic goes through servers of Google (as far as I understood). Furthermore, I apparently have to install a developer-version (unstable) of Chrome to install some simple (and scarce!) add-ons.

Safari is too limited for my daily uses. It lacks proper navigation buttons (on second thought, Chrome also doesn’t have proper ones…) and I am very limited in settings (also same with Chrome). On the other side, Safari is also fast!

So my question to fellow Mac (power)users is: What browser do you use the most and why? I would like to hear from you in the comments! (They have to be approved first, but will be approved as long it isn’t spam or some kind of troll).