What about the Opera browser?

Jul 01, 2008

Opera Browser

With so much hype surrounding the release of Firefox 3 I was wondering how many people are using the Opera browser. I find the interface quite cool. My only problem is I’m using so many add-ons with Firefox that it won’t be worth the effort switching to Opera; although it does seem inviting. Are you using Opera instead of the Internet Explorer or Firefox?

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5 Responses to “What about the Opera browser?”

Thomas Ford
July 1st, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Hi Amit,

Thanks for taking a look at Opera. Depending on the add-ons you use, you might find built-in analogues inside of Opera. If you post some of them here, I’ll let you know what Opera has that may be similar or as useful.

We recognize that add-ons are a valuable part of the Firefox experience for many users. That said, we also feel there is a value in being able to understand and control how those features impact browser performance, memory handling, etc.

Best,
Thomas
Opera Software
Amrit
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:40 am
Hello Thomas.

Thanks for dropping by and leaving your comment. I don’t know if it is a plug-in or a feature in Firefox but on the right-hand side of the location bar there is another address bar that I can use to search particular expressions on the free dictionary, on WikiPedia and some other websites. Then, I have a separate bar for my main bookmarks just under the location bar. For instance all the websites that I have to access multiple times during a day reside there; I just click the link and go to that website, for instance Gmail, my business e-mail, Google reader, TADA lists, post to del.icio.us, etc.. I would love to use Opera if I can have a similar bar in it.
Thomas Ford
July 2nd, 2008 at 12:33 pm
Hi Amrit,

For the first feature you describe, we also have a search field to the right of the address bar. When you click the drop-down, you’ll see a selection of sites you can search. The good news is that it’s completely extendable and customizable. If you like the Free Dictionary, you can visit it in Opera and right click on the search field. Then click on “Create Search”. This will add it to the search box. You can do this with almost any search field on the Web.

When you create a custom search, you can also make a keyword. The keyword allows you to type it along with your search term in the address bar. So for instance I have YouTube set up as a custom search in Opera. In the address bar, I can type “y Opera” and then get all the YouTube results matching my keyword. You can edit your search keywords by clicking Tools:Preferences:Search and customizing however you like.

On to the next feature. Just like with adding search engines, there are two ways of doing this in Opera. First, you could just customize your Speed Dial on the front page. That’s really the intent and purpose of Speed Dial - to get you to your top 9 nine sites. When you open a new tab, the Speed Dial is there and ready to go.

But if you prefer having it in a toolbar, you can click on Tools:Appearance:Toolbars and select personal bar. The personal bar will be blank, but you can add any bookmark to it and then that bookmark becomes a clickable button.

The last option you could try is to add the start bar. That gives you a drop-down menu of the top 10 sites you’ve visited or your bookmarks.

So I think there are lots of ways of doing this inside Opera, it just depends on your preference. I for one like Speed Dial. As a bonus, it can be synchronized to my mobile phone with Opera Mini. That becomes a huge time saver. The personal bar can also be synchronized, by the way.

Best,

Thomas
Amrit
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Hello Thomas.

Thanks a lot for taking out so much time, I really appreciate it. In fact today I noticed the “speed-dial” feature and even added 3-4 websites to it. I’ll deifintely use the personal bar. I’ll use Opera for some days and then write my thoughts in another post.
Byron
July 25th, 2008 at 6:41 am
I’ve been using Opera for several years now. For me, it is indeed faster than other browsers. I think it was the first to introduce tabbed browsing even before IE or Firefox offered it. And the speed dials are indeed useful. Back then, I can see text content even if the pictures haven’t loaded yet. With IE, all you can see is a blank page then when everything is loaded, you will see all elements at once. The only problem I encounter with Opera is it isn’t supported by many sites that I frequent.