I haven't used my test account because (I know it sounds silly) I'm afraid I can't get back into my regular account.
I've been there ... when I got my new iMac with Lion installed a couple months ago, I was virtually paralyzed when trying to troubleshoot several issues that arose. (A major part of the problem was that was my first intimate experience with OS X, having just forced myself to move over from OS 9 after 11 years.)
But once an Apple advisor walked me through it, I lost that fear.
Just set up another account, name it test (or something more creative) and set up a password that will be easy to remember.
Then, as suggested, see if your Safari problem occurs within. If so, then it's a system problem and may require reinstallation of Safari; if not, then it's peculiar to your user account, and the search goes on.
When you log out of your test account, the log in screen will appear with your two accounts. Choose yours and log back in.
No sweat.
