Opera: the other web browser [BT broadband office]

Opera: the other web browser

Posted 16 August 2007 at 8:43AM by Simon Dickson in Website development

My post last week about Internet Explorer prompted some interesting comments, with a surprising number of people declaring themselves to be dedicated Opera users.

The Oslo-based company has a strong reputation for its web browsing products: a few weeks back, I mentioned how much I love their mobile phone application, Opera Mini, and Nintendo Wii owners may have noticed that Opera is the browser which powers the Wii's 'internet channel'. Yet its share of the global desktop browser market is negligible, barely reaching 1% in most studies; and with Apple releasing a Windows version of its Safari browser, Opera probably finds itself pushed down to fourth in the notional pecking order.

Since its first public release in 1996, Opera has consistently stayed ahead of the field in terms of browser innovation. It was the first to introduce tabbed browsing, for example; the most recent version includes features like 'speed dial', an integrated BitTorrent download tool, thumbnail previews when you hover over a tab, and a 'widget' engine for mini-programs - none of which you'll see (by default) on either IE or Firefox. It has traditionally been better in terms of fixing security problems, and crucially for web developers, it was the first Windows web browser to pass the Acid2 Test of standards compliance.

As a small operation in a small country, without the backing of a major IT player, it was always going to struggle in the consumer market - no matter how good its product was. Yet it keeps plugging away: version 9.5 is imminent, promising further improvements to performance, standards compliance and accessibility, with further 'groundbreaking new functionality' to follow in version 10, expected to make its debut before the end of the year.

There's a lot to like about Opera. Previous versions were almost too standards-compliant, doing nasty things to badly coded pages, but I haven't seen any such problems with the current release. It comes with an excellent email program, which can also handle RSS feeds, whilst remaining a very small download. It's free of charge, and it's available for Windows, Mac, Linux, various types of smartphone, etc etc. As we all start to use multiple devices to go online, Opera is probably better placed than any of its competitors.

But it's not enough to make me switch from Firefox. As my colleague David commented previously, Firefox's strongest asset is the huge range of available add-ons. Opera's widget system has potential, but has a long way to go... and I'm not sure it has a large enough user community to catch up.

Tags: browsers, firefox, opera, wii

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Comments

1. At August 16, 2007 10:17 AM, Chris Hainey wrote:

Having switched from IE to firefox about a year and a half ago, mainly due to popups and advertising redirects etc, I have enjoyed a much better browsing experience.

Plugins such as Foxy Tunes and FireFTP have made Firefox more fun and functional at the same time. However, the popups and redirects are slowly creeping in again despite the wekkly updates to the Mozilla platform to help deter these annoyances.

Opera on the other hand is a very nice browser, and as you have mentioned, the built-in Bit-Torrent downloader and RSS feeders are very handy and easy to use. I think I might be using it more in future if the popups etc continue too much more with Firefox, but I will miss the FoxyTunes plugin... unless one could be developed for Opera...

2. At August 16, 2007 11:08 AM, Jonathan wrote:

I used to opera, loved the fact that it remembered the pages I had been looking at when the browser closed but more and more I have too have grown to love my firefox add-on's. The thumbnail idea however sounds interesting. Think I might have to give opera another go.

3. At August 16, 2007 11:15 AM, Anjanesh wrote:

Well written entry. Opera has been the silent performer of sorts on innovation;sad that its uptake is not comparable (at the moment).I particularly like the voice command function and text readout - simply ahead of its time. It is not without bugs though. Opera on mobile ( Symbian 3rd edition platform) mimicks its windows twin for functionality and ease of use. Have also been using the beta version of Firefox 3 code named 'Grand Paradiso' which promises a lot more for good 'ol wily Fox.

4. At August 16, 2007 4:16 PM, C.M. Punk wrote:

I also use Firefox, i find it far more reliable than IE, Opera i find sometimes doesnt display things quite as expected, although suspect most developers today dont even think too much towards designing for this particular browser.

I have all the functions i need to use built into firefox and therefore dont see a switch anytime soon.

5. At August 16, 2007 8:03 PM, craig wrote:

just downloaded opera for the first time

and find it to be better than ie

the speed dal function is great

6. At August 18, 2007 1:28 PM, Marc Ferguson wrote:

I tried Opera for a while, the tabs and thumbnails were great. Speed dial is definitely a great idea too. Their other great innovation is the use of 'mouse gestures' to control certain functions. For example if you hold the right mouse button and move the pointer in a capital L shape, it will close the current tab.

Disaster strikes when you do this accidentally, but another of Opera's great features, the ever-helpful Ctrl-Z, comes to the rescue! Even the simpler things like being able to close an open tab with a mousewheel click made it that little bit faster to navigate.

Now the bad bits. When visiting pages with certain java applets, Opera would crash when trying to close the tab. I also had some random crashes, which is something I've never had with Firefox, but of course have had with IE! Anyone who has used Opera will know that the 'magic wand' method of entering form details is a mixed blessing when you need to enter multiple addresses on one page, or when logging in to sites you commonly use (Opera refuses to stay logged in to anything)

Overall I'm glad I tried Opera as a break from the norm but until they iron out a few more bugs, I think I prefer the stability of Firefox.

RE: The built-in torrent client, I didn't find this useful as there is not much scope to customize the settings, but a lot of users might like this feature as it saves on taskbar/system tray real estate.

7. At August 20, 2007 7:39 AM, Michael Scott wrote:

I used Firefox, Opera is less consistent some webpages do not display as you'd expect. I also find Firefox add-ons to be excellent. Opera is ok but I don't find it as easy to use. In fact I would rank Safari above Opera, Safari is very fast.

8. At August 20, 2007 11:10 PM, Paul Masters wrote:

I like Opera and its ability to open so many webpages at once using tabs.

As I read the same set of blogs nearly everyday, I keep all 33 URLs in a bookmarker folder which Opera allows me to open with just a few clicks.
Once the first site is loaded, any more tardy sites are still being loaded while I'm reading it. Having each site opened in its own tab means that as I finish reading each one, all I have to do is close a tab to reveal the next.

It's a much nicer experience than having to open each site individually.

9. At August 21, 2007 12:40 PM, Chris Paton wrote:

Paul, you can do that with Firefox, or at least I can, I tend to open tabs with the middle mouse button when I'm browsing forums, or opening up items from my favourites folder, so this is not really an addition that Opera has on it's own.

That said I've not used opera, so I can hardly comment on that.

IE7 even has tabs, but I don't think there anywhere as functional as Firefox's

10. At August 22, 2007 10:14 AM, Stuart Cree wrote:

I use Firefox having had all sorts of problems with IE and find it wonderful. However, I have started to suffer from low virtual memory issues which I'm told is to do with Firefox. Anyone had similar problems with Opera?

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