Everyone says that Opera is an innovative browser, but most fail to say why. So I created a list of ten features that are really helpful in your everyday browsing and are available in Opera. Some of them are available in Firefox, if you download extensions, or in other browsers, so you may say they're not unique to Opera, but Opera used them first and they are a part of Opera's innovation.Here's the list:
1. Duplicate this tab
You visit a page and you want to read it later. For the moment, you want to go back to the previous one. What do you do? Copy the address of the page, create a new tab and paste the URL in the address bar. In Opera you just click Duplicate. The new tab will also duplicate the history.
2. Go to URL
You see a web address in a page, but it's not not hyperlinked. How do you visit the web page? You copy it and paste it in the address bar, then press enter. In Opera, select the address, right-click and select "Go to URL".
3. Reload every 30 seconds
You go to a site that shows the live score of a baseball match and it doesn't reload periodically, so you'll have to press F5 every 30 seconds to see the score. In Opera, select "reload every 30 seconds".
4. Fit to window width
Nobody likes the horizontal scrollbar in a page, but some webmasters don't bother to view their sites at different resolutions. In Opera, select "fit to window width" to remove the horizontal scrollbar and shrink the content.
5. Rewind
You search for something at Google, discover a great site, you visit 20 pages from that site and then you want to go back to the search results. You can click Back 20 times or try to locate Google in the drop-down list. Or you can just hit "Rewind" if you use Opera.
6. Nicknames for collections of sites
How do you visit you favorite sites? You bookmark them and then try to locate the sites in the Bookmars menu. Or you enter the first letters of the URL in the address bar. In Opera you can associate nicknames to sites or collection of sites. Picture this: type "news" and see your favourite news sites opening in their tabs.
7. Tab closing
You visit site A, open a link to site B in a new tab, but the tabs A and B aren't next to each other. If you close tab B, Firefox won't revert to the tab A. You'll see site C in a tab at the left of tab B. Opera shows the previous active tab.
8. Instant back
When you click Back, the browser tries to refetch the page. Opera shows the page from the cache, so the "Back" action happens instantly.
9. Page zoom
Some sites have almost unreadable font sizes, others have huge pictures. Opera zoom feature maintains the site integrity and allows you to view the site without losing the visual presentation.
10. Crash recovery
Your browser crashes and you want to go back to the sites you were visting before the crash. In Firefox, you have to go History and open them one by one. Opera automatically saves last session so you'll see the tabs in the same order when you open the browser.
And that's not all:
11. if you want to load pages faster, you can load only cached images
12. you can control the browser with voice commands
13. use mouse gestures (you can go back this way: hold right button and move mouse left or hold right button and click left button)
14. create beautiful presentations without using Microsoft PowerPoint (even online)
15. change keyboard shortcuts
All the features above are available in Opera 8. The new version of Opera (Opera 9 Beta) has even more: BitTorrent integration, widgets, thumbnail preview for tabs and page customization (that's right - you can save settings just for a page).
Related:
Full list of features
Download Opera
Great tips for Opera
2 - grease monkey plugin
ReplyDelete3 - extended tabs plugin
9 - dont need plugin?
Thanks for this post. I downloaded opera 9.0 beta from their website and installed it in Ubuntu breezy. It is all what you have mentioned and more. You may also want to include opera widgets which I found really useful and for which there is no equvivalent in firefox.
ReplyDelete--
Ravi
http://linuxhelp.blogspot.com
As far as i know, 7 of those 10 features are already there for Firefox as extensions, and that what Opera doesn't have!
ReplyDeleteFirefox is way better at many ways, Open-Source, expandable, hackable and does the job quite well.
Of course, it's a personal preference, but i have a little issue with Opera's page rendering, and other CSS issues as well. Besides that, it's a good browser indeed.
If I hadn't grown up with firefox I'd definately consider Opera! But I prefer Firefox at the moment.. I'm just used to it and you can expand it so well. So far I use Opera only to test my website for Opera-specific CSS issues, and they definately exist...
ReplyDelete1. in firefox you click the adress bar and start a new tab with the link via alt+enter
2. okay, in firefox only via extension (maybe)
3. extension
4. thats cool
5. that one, too
6. you can do this in ff, too
7. neat
8. ff has that caching, too
9. i'm waiting for this in ff (but there's an extension)
10. i hate this with firefox!
Only "Fit to window width" is not available in Firefox nor by an extension for Firefox.
ReplyDeleteMaxthon also features a Crash recovery feature, which is pretty damn cool!
ReplyDeleteWhen I used Opera for a day, I found number 4 to be awesome when comparing Wikipedia edit comparing and such. That was pretty awesome. No horizontal scroll. It was the only feature I could really get into though. Number 10 is awesome too, but it's available as an extension for Firefox. The rest aren't really important, and more of a lazy way of doing things.
ReplyDeleteThe main issues I had with Opera were getting the tabs to be below the address typing, and how the options dialog and opera:config were handled. They need to simplify some things mostly before I'll be able to use it.
after I read this article, i decided to try and now I consider to switch from firefox to opera..
ReplyDeleteIt is very cool and very fast..
I hate the memory leaked problem in firefox.. also often get crashed...
Just use it and let see.. how good is opera?
Maxthon have these features long long time ago.
ReplyDeleteAnother very useful Opera feature is the page recycle bin, it keeps your closed tabs, as well as blocked popups. I can't remember how many times I have accidentally closed a tab and wanting to go back to it
ReplyDelete10: Session Manager extension
ReplyDelete7: Firefox 2.0 and 3.0
9: Ctrl+ and Ctrl -
Also, what about IETab?
ReplyDeleteFirefox extensions increase RAM usage and sometimes have memory leaks.
ReplyDeleteMaxthon and IETab use Internet Explorer and inherit all its weaknesses.
1. firefox already has
ReplyDelete2. paste and go extension
3. reloadevery extension
6. already has
7. some versions of firefox has
8. fasterfox extension
9. reveal extension
10. comes with tab mix plus extension
2 and 5 are in Safari as well. There goes them!
ReplyDeleteThe rest are nice, but 8) Instant back is a MUST HAVE. It is also a correct implementation of HTTP spec which tells that user navigation via back/forward should not cause a page reload (see 13.13 History Lists in RFC2616).
ReplyDeleteI also like Opera's "user view" which overrides un-decorated links and strange colour/font choices of unfriendly web pages - Firefox has a similar "page style" feature which does not work so well. And I use Opera's session saving feature.
Yeah, Opera rocks. I use Firefox, but you still gotta respect quality.
ReplyDeleteAOL Explorer offers some of these functions out of the box as does Maxthon. Do more research before posting an article like this.
ReplyDeleteAs mentioned, 2 and 5 are in Safari, but 10 is also available with Saft.
ReplyDeleteThis is not a "who's better" article. I use Firefox and I like it, but I just wanted to point out that Opera doesn't get too much attention although it has many unique features.
ReplyDeleteYou can't say that IE has a spell-checker just because Google Toolbar is a plugin for Explorer and it has that feature.
Most Firefox extensions mentioned before are nice, but if you install too many, Firefox will use even more memory.
But I say it once again: don't transform this in a flame: Firefox vs Opera. It's not productive.
I used to use opera as my browser and loved it. As soon as I used the adblock feature in firsefox, most of the stuff I had in opera no longer mattered. I found extensions for most features, and am currently pretty happy with firefox.
ReplyDeleteIf you're going to write about something with authority, then make sure you've done your homework. Firefox extensions can provide most of what you say only appears in Opera:
ReplyDelete1. Duplicate this tab
SuperT
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2224/
2. Go to URL
URL Link
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/403/
3. Reload every 30 seconds
ReloadEvery
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/115/
5. Rewind
Something close 'nuf:
https://addons.mozilla.org/addon.php?id=1957
7. Tab closing
Tab Mix Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
9. Page zoom
What's wrong with control + scroll wheel?
10. Crash recovery
Tab Mix Plus
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/1122/
or
SessionManager
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/2324/
or
Session Saver
https://addons.mozilla.org/firefox/436/
1. , c'mon it's all about the middle mouse click on the back button.
ReplyDeletestopped reading after that, after realising i didn't care really.
skipped to comments for possible analysis, amused at general concensus.
then felt dumb for optimistically following link, maybe comment will justify something.
i..
nah, just wasting time on the net, looking for something new, moving on..
5)profit
sub
My favorite opera feature, the F-12 list, was not listed in this top 10.
ReplyDeleteIt quickly allows you to change pop-up blocking preferences. You can enable or disable gif/svg animation, sounds in webpages, java, javascript, and other plugins. You can change your browser identity, disbale cookies, and easily open the site specific preferences dialog. You can do all of this without digging into preferences or navigating through a bunch of menus. Just press F-12 and up pops a little context menu.
"This is not a "who's better" article.
ReplyDeleteUm.. that's what it sounds like to me.
I use Firefox and I like it, but I just wanted to point out that Opera doesn't get too much attention although it has many unique features."
Just for the record, look up the word "unique". If the feature exists in 1 or more other browsers then it's not unique to Opera. More accurate adjectives would be useful, helpful, beneficial, neat, cool, etc.
A favorite feature of mine is the Fast Forward button / gesture. If i'm browsing things from a dir list or there are links tagged as next (like search results) I can quickly go to the next item without searching for a link or going back a page and finding the next item in the list.
ReplyDeleteAbout 8. Instant back
ReplyDeleteSee this Opera Knowledge Base: JavaScript and History Navigation
I found that on certain site using back will load the full page again, because of some scripts making opera think it needs to refresh. Changing those Settings helps.
By the way, I get that a lot of people like Firefox - I use it as my main Browser too. But I think you could still recognize that Opera has the most usefull feature without being bloated and without having to install 10 extensions. That is the core of this posting and it is good!
Thanks,
Marco
Page zoom Is a feature of IE7
ReplyDeleteAlso bookmarks in IE can be opened by typing the name of the bookmark, maybe not a folder of them but indivduals...
Most of this can be done in Firefox by extentsions, and probally in IE (if people made the extentsions for it), So yes by defualt Opera might have mroe but all 100 are not unquie to even defualt installs of IE or Firefox.
In my personal order of preference FirFox, IE7Beta, Opera... My experinces with Opera just haven't been stellar.
Page zoom means Graphic zoom also.
ReplyDeleteWho cares about extensions. It's not like Opera vs 100000000000000000 extensions of firefox or ugly hack of ie. gg no re
You say this is an article to point out what is UNIQUE with Opera and yet several features are in Safari out of the box which does NOT make them unique to safari.
ReplyDeleteAlso serveral of the later items are more a personal preference than a feature. Some might prefer that it goes to the next tab instead of the last used when you close a tab.
the main advantage with opera is it is stable and fast. especially useful on older, slow machines. all the features are neatly organised (vs ff).
ReplyDeleteI like perticularly the feature where i can search perticular type of links on a page and download all those files at one go.
one major problem in firefox it when it saves passwords it doesnt warn that thos can be viewed simply thru preferences...
Well, all of the Firefox fanboys seem to have something to say about almost all of the things listed in the article. What do you say about Opera being your web browser and email client and still using less ram than Firefox.
ReplyDeleteOpera rules so much, it's senior to Firefox and has everything "out of the box"! No hassle downloading a bunch of extensions. If you have to think about innovative you'll have to say Opera, because all Firefox has been doing is replicate Opera features with it's extensions. Sure it's a good alternative to IE, but once you adopt Opera and it's ease of use you won't change back. Let's say; at my school they have Firefox, wow that is great! There is no plug-in it's "dry" browsing. I install Opera and surf just as efficiently as if I were home.
ReplyDeleteLong live Opera & Opera Mini :D - The true innovators!
For #1, middle-clicking the back button in FireFox will open the previous page in a new tab.
ReplyDeleteI like Opera. I think it's a good browser. It just crashed one too many times on tricky and/or overloaded sites. FF doesn't do that to me AS MUCH.
Also, Opera is a little too feature-rich for my tastes. Safari has too little. FF fits me well.
I've read the two first items and BOTH can be done with the browser I use, Konqueror. Your headline is false.
ReplyDeleteOpera is definitely a great browser, although I prefer Firefox for it's overall simplicity. As for #1, I think a previous commentor pointed out the middle click on the back button. This was one of the first "features" of Firefox I discovered and turned me into a "tabbed browser only" user.
ReplyDeleteI will say though that I use Opera for specific sites due to #8 and #9. While other browsers let you control the text size, nothing compares to the Zoom feature of Opera, note zoom is different from adjusting the font size! Don't have immediate access, but I think the last IE7 beta had a similar "zoom" feature.
Extensions handle most of the rest of this list in Firefox and I still feel that Firefox is running much quicker because the interface is just "cleaner", all of these things of course in my very humbled opinion.
2, 4 and 5 are all in safari on os x.
ReplyDelete9 is in os x as a whole. you can zoom in on any area of the screen (including the browser window) if it is too small to read. [Universal Access Control Pane]
Opera is not only a good web browser. It integrate another very useful tools such e-mail client, feed reader, contact manager. All of them with very fine and easy way to search and organize. You only get web, mail, newsfeed, notes and contacts in one place with opera. Just another tip. If you have Linux and Windows in the same machine is easy to configure the path in the opera.ini file to point a folder in a fat partition that contains opera data folder. It let you have the same configuration mails contacts,.. everything in the same status in both operating systems.
ReplyDeleteSafari invented the "Rewind" function.
ReplyDeleteCamino has the instant back function.
This list is ill-advised and inaccurate.
Safari doesn't even have a "rewind".
ReplyDeleteMy favorite thing to do in Opera, and I have yet to be able to configure the multiple tab-related Firefox extensions to do so, is this: have Google open in one tab and have every click of a google links reuse another tab. It keeps me from having a dozen open tabs open up as I try to find something.
ReplyDeleteSafari *does* have "rewind" although it is not named "rewind". It is named "snap back" and it is the little orange arrow that shows up on the right of the address bar after you go a couple links deep.
ReplyDeleteIn Safari you can also do the same functionality as #1. If you right click, you can hold down "option" and the context menu item "Go Back" changes to "Go Back in new Tab".
I think #7 is just a matter of personal preference. I prefer the way Safari and Firefox do this.
10. is not really necessary if you build a browser that doesn't crash. (haha)
8. Safari uses the cached version as well.
6. Nicknames: In Safari you just make a folder in your bookmarks, and then you can select "Open in Tabs" to open all the bookmarks inside that folder at once..
You can also enhance Safari for more non-standard features using Saft, Stand, and Pith Helmet and the Safari debug menu.
Opera is unique because almost all this features existed since like 4 or 5 year ago, a long time before the Firefox proyect. Also a very good feature is the sessions. If you need to go and you have 15 tabs opened it saves everithing. When you come back you can even click Back and have all the history from the last session. Opera rocks, it has some rendering problems but anyway it rocks. Don't pay attention to the Firefox fanboys...They love Firefox because everybody else does, not because the "know" what they are talking about
ReplyDeleteSafari also supports duplicating tabs. The only reason no one knows about it is because it is the same key command for Spotlight, command-space bar.
ReplyDeleteYour title of this post is " 10 Features You'll Find Only In Opera" which is a MAJOR misnomer.
ReplyDeleteThe only features that are not available in FireFox are 4, 9, 12 and 14.
Create presentations? This is a web browser. If you need a presentation in a browser that bad, look at S5.
Voice commands? Do I really want all the people in my office looking at me funny, while I shout "Back, Back I say!" at my computer?
Zoom is nice. Might be an extension I don't know about.
I've seen bookmarklets that do force-wrapping type things, but never well.
The best part about extending Firefox to match the features that Opera has by default is they all break every time you upgrade Firefox. Hooray for duct taping features!
ReplyDeleteI remember, years ago, when Mozilla (well before it was Firefox) first started using extensions, at least half the extensions that popped up were purely and simply efforts to duplicate well established Opera features.
ReplyDeleteFirefox may be now winning the browser war, but Opera should be proud of just how many innovative and useful features they invented first.
TAB TRASH! Man, I can't believe you left out the recently-closed pages list!
ReplyDeleteI use Opera, Firefox, IE6, 7, and the Moz suite concurrently - but Opera's trashbin is what makes me love it so!
You need to use more browsers before making sweeping statements like "only find in"
ReplyDeleteOmniWeb 5 on the Mac has had 90% of those features built-in long before Opera ever did. Some of those new (and presumably "only found in") to Opera 9 features have been in OmniWeb 5 for a couple of years now (graphical tabs, btw, were probably in a Windows browser called iRider first).
That isn't to say that they aren't good features or that Opera isn't a good browser to have them, they just are not as unique as you have made them seem.
OmniWeb looks really nice, but it's not free (it costs $29.95), it's available only for Mac and its vertical tabbing looks quite weird.
ReplyDeleteA good (but not complete) comparison of web browsers is available at Wikipedia.
I admit the headline is misleading and there are many web browsers that have great features. If the words "only" and "unique" offended you, I'm sorry (I rewrote the first paragraph to eliminate them, unfortunately I can't change the title), but if your browser (be it OmniWeb, Maxthon, NetSurf, Camino, Flock or other) has something you really like, share it to the world and increase its awareness. This way, people like me won't make such confusions anymore.
Here is a list of features that were included in opera first.
ReplyDeleteTweaking Opera : http://www.pallab.net/2006/04/12/extending-opera-the-ultimate-guide-to-customizing-opera/
Open source = "come'n mess up me".
ReplyDeleteIf something is open source, it scares me. Code bloats, everybody touches it. Code frequently violates standards or coding idioms. People, however, think that open source is hackable but they miss the point; the point is that if a code is open for public, it means it's open to be messed up and full of weird techniques.
One more point; I should not think on hacking the code because I expect "the product" I'm using to work correctly. Imagine, if you will, one is a 45 years old retired worker, bought a PC to his 12 years old daughter, both have no idea about computers... One guy comes up and explains the "open source". I could nominate this approach to "The World's Most Stupid Suggestions - So Hack the Code, dude!". And this is why "the bad" Bill Gates wins.
Firefox code is gigantic. Comes third after QT and KDE code in my "code not to download" list, though QT and KDE code are far more readable and cleaner and required. After all, I can still have a browser without compiling messy code.
You miss one more point; you all say "all of those features are enabled as firefox extensions", and author does not mention about "Opera extensions" because those are "native" features that you get without extensions. Opera is smaller with those extensions, pure Firefox installation is larger + if you download extensions it gets bigger + bad extensions can cause browser to crash... Opera runs on any device (repeat, any device) if you mind this detail to understand how tight the code is.
I don't have to keep looking for extensions, they should advertise themselves so that I could know. On the other hand, if those features are not included along with already big Firefox, as native features, this is nobody's but Firefox people's fault to exclude them and let those absent features later "patched" by anybody else.
I'm against Firefox. First time in my life, I'm against a web browser whose name is not Internet Explorer. Because Firefox is dead slow (at least on my FreeBSD), big, and does less but somehow exaggerated by people, messed code (like various GPL style licensed software).
Moral of the story;
extensions
are to patch
absent or excluded
native
features
and they
make Firefox
even
bigger
period.
Capische?
You can do all this in Firefox after you get these 50 best extensions for power surfing.
ReplyDelete.. and that's exactly the problem!
ReplyDeleteNot exactly the same, but imagine same thing for your car (top 50 accessories for your car - make it heavier than ever!!)
OmniWeb has 10 out of the 15, many of them implemented with more features than Opera:
ReplyDeletehttp://forums.omnigroup.com/showthread.php?p=1744
Thanks to your article i tried Opera and liked it ;).
ReplyDeleteOpera is second to none for pr0n browsing... :)
ReplyDeleteGet to a page of thumbnails, hit F11 (fullscreen, black background), then just hit spacebar to load the following image... (this is a result of a specialisation of the Forward action)
PS. Thumbnails should be links to plain .jpg's
--
Your local perv
This is stupid.
ReplyDelete1. Extension
2. Extension
3. Easy, an extension.
I'm sure ff could do all of these features with extensions, but that's becides the point! My crappy old 1969ford escort could beat a limited edition porshe easy. With 5 rockets strapped to the back, as _extensions_.
Nice feature set.
ReplyDeleteThe "duplicate tab" was even new for me.
Greets
-------------------------------
www.schreiblogade.de
www.ulmassive.de
I love the way that so many commentators have diligently researched Firefox plugins that have similar functions to these features in Opera, then listed them. Other posts have said that "Safari does this" or "Camino does that". The article says "Some of them are available in Firefox, if you download extensions, or in other browsers, so you may say they're not unique to Opera, but Opera used them first and they are a part of Opera's innovation."
ReplyDeleteThere is one more brilliant thing about Opera, and that is keyboard navigation. MSIE and Firefox browse links within the page in a very stupid way, and that is how they "flow" in source code, only Opera can follow next/previous links based on their actual graphical presentation on the screen.
ReplyDeleteVery handy of you love keyboard or if your mouse stops working..
Opera is the best browser for Windows and Macintosh, after Konqueror it is the best on Linux PCs, too!!!
ReplyDeleteJust look at the facts (www.howtocreate.co.uk/browserSpeed.html). This is not joking. The new Opera supports Java apps. Fully compatible with Flash, etc.
Know sth better, please tell me!!!
Regarding this "only find in opera" notion...well...pretty much all of these features are available in Avant too.
ReplyDeleteDoes anybody have any comments about the CPU usage in Opera as compared to Firfox 1.5.0.X or Firefox 2.0beta1. I feel that Opera is way better there. I am not saying that I dont like/use Firefox but I the CPU usage sucks currently
ReplyDeleteThese so called "Opera specific CSS issues" are actually because Opera is more strict when parsing CSS than (most?) other browsers. Opera's support for CSS is top-notch and even better now with version 9.
ReplyDeleteMaybe you should learn to write proper CSS before complaining.
I'm using Firefox w/ around 60 extensions and it doesn't use too much RAM...
ReplyDeleteThink about it: An average "value" PC currently ships with about 512MB of RAM, 256MB+ of which you will never use except for playing games. When was the last time you heard of somebody playing FarCry with Firefox open at the same time?
Opera also isn't necessarily the most standards compliant browser. As a matter of fact, Firefox has far better HTML support than Opera.
I personally have Firefox 1.5 & 2b1 and Opera 9 installed, although I hardly ever use Opera.
BTW: You know those browser speed tests from howtocreate.co.uk? They were written by an Opera technical writer...
OPERA RULES!!!
ReplyDeleteFF is pale copy of it
I think the point he was getting at is that Opera has all of these feature pre-mstalled, without the hassle of downloading 8+ extensions in Firefox. Opera also consumes less RAM, doesn't leak RAM and renders images better than Firefox and every other browser (acid2 test proves this.
ReplyDeleteAise from Opera, there's no way for any other browser to get these aside from having the occassional few on the list.
As for me, Mouse Gestures (which yes, Firefox has a copy via extensions), and the "Paste and Go" features.
Opera rocks man! 4.x MB for everything u'll ever need! For anything else, there are widgets. Faster, secure, ultra feature-rich, compliant!
ReplyDeleteSunshine :)
For more information: http://files.myopera.com/Rijk/blog/extensions.html
ReplyDeleteHopefully this list is more accurate:
1. Right click + scroll wheel
2. Can handle the most tabs opened among the top 3 windows browser (FF and IE7 can handle less tabs before the system slows down)
3. Search in address bar - go to a search site, in the search box, right click, create search, put letter. When you search for something, type g in address bar space keywords then enter. No need for search bar anymore or additional toolbars. FF still only supports google search in address bar.
4. Drag tabs into personal bar, panels, besides address bar - An improved version of FF's customize toolbar, alternate way to bookmark often visited pages.
5. Trash can - an easier version of undo closed tab/ closed tabs list
6. More Import and Export options
7. Wand + master password - A safer version of putting in passwords compared to FF and IE's default way.
8. Manage bookmarks - Superior to bookmark folder extension in that you can create folders while bookmarking
9. Single button navigation - In Opera, moving from tab to tab involves pressing 1 and 2 and if you prefer, an easier way to remap the keys into Ctrl Tab like FF by visiting Tools - Preference
10. Multiple Config + Customizable lay-out = Each skins downloaded has color schemes which adds 12 additional skins from just downloading 1 skin. Each setup/toolbars/keyboard/mouse config can be saved, duplicated easily for when you want to switch back to the default setup or want Opera to function/look another way quickly.
firefox has NO zoom!
ReplyDeletefirefox may changes the font size, but it does NOT zoom images...Opera zooms the page including pictures and stuff
What about Speed Dial? Thats a nice Opera feature - kinda like fav 9 for the internet :P
ReplyDeleteOne more missed feature
ReplyDeleteSimply type :
g your query
in the address bar in opera and the google results will show up...Now aint that Awesome !!!
People, you are all missing the point. :)
ReplyDeleteYou are comparing like apples to Nissan. "What is better?" The hell, it depends!
"Opera is better, since these features are out of box", "Firefox is better, since you can have more features"...
Isn't it god damn obvious, that for a not so tech user Opera is easier and friendlier, while the customization and modularization of Firefox is incredibly powerful for a power-user?
The target audience is different, do not compare two totally different things!
If I needed a car to look cool, I'd buy a Porsche. If I needed a car for family, I'd buy mini-van. What's better? Depends.
I find it interesting half these comments are compairing it to firefox. What are you scared that Opera will sway you? Unlikely that opera however more revelutionary, faster or more feature rich could ever beat firefox's overwhelming ad campain (a sad day for opera).
ReplyDeleteThose features above are Innovations by Opera. It may exist in Firefox, but Opera made those features first. and it seems that this post is infested by close-minded Firefox fanboys, whattashame.
ReplyDeleteBTW. I am a previous FF Fanboy, but fell in love with Opera.
My favourite Opera features:
ReplyDelete1)Custom Search
- no need for any fancy toolbar.
- i can create my OWN shortcut keyword to use the search function of ANY website w/o having to go to that website (not just google and a few others)
2)Mouse gestures
- i wish i can have an OS with mouse gestures too
3)No extension
- everything is so much cleaner
- no more constant updates
4)Auto-password and Registration
- no need to register and fill in passwords at every website that requires it
5)Speed Dial
- type 1 and press enter, automatically lands in your fav site
- or you can use ctrl+1 (direct access)
-or ctrl+t and just click on the website image
Once you get used to all those features, firefox and IE feels real clumsy. yeah, once you've driven porsche, everything else just feels old.
This is all achieved w/o hogging resources. It is also the most secure browser. It also passes (100%) all ACID test.
Firefox Is way better! and also I think you should take off number ten because firefox always recovers all you're pages from a crash and even from something as abrubt as a power cut! plus it keeps it in each page in the same order and in the same tabs and/or windows as before!
ReplyDelete@Anonymous:
ReplyDeleteKeep in mind that the article is from May 2006. Firefox added session restore in October 2006 (when Firefox 2.0 was launched).
Interesting to read the comments and lot of helpful knowledge also about these two great browsers.
ReplyDeleteI'm one of those who like both Firefox and Opera.
I like to add couple of great features of Opera which i've discovered.
Rightclick the webpage ur viewing and scroll down the options below and there u can choose to view the same page in IE or FF.
Hold the right mouse button and scroll the mouse wheel and u can view multiple pages u've opened and choose the page u like to view.
See this as well:
ReplyDelete12 Things You Would Love About Opera
Firefox doesn't have sh*it against Opera
ReplyDeleteopera 10 is just releasing by the end of year.
ReplyDeleteCan't understand every time there is a "Opera vs Firefox" post people go ballistic. It's only a web browser, lol.
ReplyDeleteAt any rate it's a good idea to carry all the major browsers simply because some sites are displayed differently depending on what your using. Obviously for developers it's a must.
Opera has definitely matured since this article was written and has some great (built in) features and Firefox is more expandable simply because of the sheer number of users.
Use both and switch around when you get bored.
Firefox is great for moving people from IE.
ReplyDeleteBut if they want something newer and better then Opera is the logical choice. Simply because tasks that require you to install plugins in Firefox just work out of the box in Opera. So need to mess about installing greasemonkey etc.
Absolutely fantastic features, specially the instant back and reload every 10 seconds works well for me.
ReplyDeleteLoving Opera! It doesn't crash nearly like IE! I am sure others are great too, but for me this is the best! We all have different opinions and that's fine.
ReplyDeleteI have been an opera user since long. I have found it to be the best as far my usage is concerned, without getting into technical details. Firefox,Netscape,IE, Flock all have been used by me, but i still feel Opera is the best and have stuck with Opera till date.
ReplyDeleteDoes anyone know the name of this opera?
ReplyDeleteThis is preformed by the Norwegian comedy group Raske Menn, and I really want to know what the name of this song is called.
Been using Opera for years now. If you actually take the time to learn what it can do, you will find out just how good it really is.
ReplyDeleteOpera is innovative and feature Rich. Go Opera.. Go Opera..
ReplyDeleteNice posting. Thank’s for info sharing ^_^
well i have installed opera,thanx for this educational,informative,tutorial post.its so useful.
ReplyDeleteThe synchronization process discussed above is done using a feature called Opera Link. Using this service, users can synchronize Speed Dial, Bookmarks, Personal Bar, Typed History, Notes, and Searches.
ReplyDeleteOpera is a smart choice for navigation on expensive wireless data plans. We can use Opera to surf the Web with the mobile phone money on their phone bill by saving your data consumption significantly. Opera Mini uses only a tenth of the other browsers' bandwidth, compression of Web pages up to 90%. The Mobile Opera, Opera turbo compresses data by over 80% or Opera Turbo omits all data for the site, as you would on a PC.
ReplyDeleteTurbo mode-ideal for dial-up and low-speed wifi connections, this handy feature in Opera compresses images on the webpages for faster loading times! The turbo mode can be set to automatically turn on when the connection speed slows, or to stay on constantly.
ReplyDeleteLast week I wanted to give Opera a chance. In this time it crushed more often than FF in the last years. Bye Bye Opera!
ReplyDeleteAt least, it is better than Internet Exploder (not a typo)
ReplyDelete