For a self-proclaimed newbie, I highly doubt they'd know an RGB colorspace JPEG file from a non-RGB colorspace JPEG file. Hell, I'm a tad more experienced than a newbie, and that's not something that would occur to me straight off the bat as a problem.
I would second the recommendation of trying out the FireFox web browser. It is, indeed, more compatible with some sites that make use of forms than Safari is -- I occasionally run into websites that Safari doesn't like that FireFox works with flawlessly. I still use Safari for everything, but if and when I do encounter said sites, I'll temporarily launch FireFox to get the work done.