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In the last post, I discussed some of the new features of Safari 4 beta. Though significant, the new features are hardly innovate; Opera users have enjoyed all of Safari 4’s new features for years now.
Opera introduced tabbed browsing. As one who takes his screen real estate seriously, tabbed browsing is one the single most important tools for browsing efficiency. Opera also invented mouse gesture web browsing. Productivity is drastically sped up by allowing users to use mouse motions to navigate pages rather than using the navigation buttons or keyboard shortcuts. For example, to go back a page, the user holds the right mouse button and clicks the left. Vice versa to go forward a page. To switch between tabs, the user holds the right mouse buttons and drags the scroll wheel. I’ve gotten so accustomed to the speed at which I can browse using mouse gestures, I accidentally try use them in windows explorer. If a programmer could make mouse gestures that worked in windows explorer, I’d plug your work everywhere!
Other great features include a robust selection of skins (Moi and Example are my favorites), built in torrent client (only browser with this feature natively), and widgets – small apps that run on top of Opera. There is also a feature called Speed Dial, which allows the user to pin up to 9 favorite sites onto the new tab screen for faster access to web pages. Apple has incorporated this feature into Safari 4 called Top Sites, but as of now, it doesn’t let you pin sites you haven’t already visited first, which is a bit annoying. I must admit however, the Apple version of Speed Dial is a very pretty looking one.
Until Google release Chrome, Opera was also the fastest browser on the market. However, the alpha release of Opera (version 10) has reclaimed the browsing speed title, thanks to the new Presto 2.2 browsing engine. Opera also loads faster than Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. In our fast paced world, speed is a crucial consideration when trying to increase productivity.
Though Opera enjoys a considerable market share in the mobile phone arena (I suspect Apple will continue to block the Opera browser because it is clearly better than the mobile version of Safari) as well as the Nintendo Wii and DS systems, it significantly trails Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. It is my hope that Opera’s personal computer market increases, because I think it offers the superior web browser experience.
More Objective Speed Tests at PC Mag
Download Opera Here
In the last post, I discussed some of the new features of Safari 4 beta. Though significant, the new features are hardly innovate; Opera users have enjoyed all of Safari 4’s new features for years now.
Opera introduced tabbed browsing. As one who takes his screen real estate seriously, tabbed browsing is one the single most important tools for browsing efficiency. Opera also invented mouse gesture web browsing. Productivity is drastically sped up by allowing users to use mouse motions to navigate pages rather than using the navigation buttons or keyboard shortcuts. For example, to go back a page, the user holds the right mouse button and clicks the left. Vice versa to go forward a page. To switch between tabs, the user holds the right mouse buttons and drags the scroll wheel. I’ve gotten so accustomed to the speed at which I can browse using mouse gestures, I accidentally try use them in windows explorer. If a programmer could make mouse gestures that worked in windows explorer, I’d plug your work everywhere!
Other great features include a robust selection of skins (Moi and Example are my favorites), built in torrent client (only browser with this feature natively), and widgets – small apps that run on top of Opera. There is also a feature called Speed Dial, which allows the user to pin up to 9 favorite sites onto the new tab screen for faster access to web pages. Apple has incorporated this feature into Safari 4 called Top Sites, but as of now, it doesn’t let you pin sites you haven’t already visited first, which is a bit annoying. I must admit however, the Apple version of Speed Dial is a very pretty looking one.
Until Google release Chrome, Opera was also the fastest browser on the market. However, the alpha release of Opera (version 10) has reclaimed the browsing speed title, thanks to the new Presto 2.2 browsing engine. Opera also loads faster than Safari, Firefox, and Chrome. In our fast paced world, speed is a crucial consideration when trying to increase productivity.
Though Opera enjoys a considerable market share in the mobile phone arena (I suspect Apple will continue to block the Opera browser because it is clearly better than the mobile version of Safari) as well as the Nintendo Wii and DS systems, it significantly trails Firefox, Safari, and Internet Explorer. It is my hope that Opera’s personal computer market increases, because I think it offers the superior web browser experience.
More Objective Speed Tests at PC Mag
Download Opera Here
