Thoughts: Opera 9.5 Alpha

September 10th, 2007

I am currently using Opera 9.5 Alpha to write this. Within the past few weeks of using the test version of the latest Opera browser, I have certainly been pleased.

First, I have noticed an increased speed with page rendering, which is quite useful on this older windows machine.

Second, I love the new features, notably the History Search within the address bar. What this does, is when you type in a url in the address bar, Opera not only provides you with a list of items containing that url but also lists any page in your history (recently browsed websites) that contains the word or url you are currently typing. So, instead of opening up your history to do a search, just simply type it in the address bar! As a huge fan of all of Opera’s features that allow me to undo my web browsing mistakes, being able to quickly find a page I just had opened is wonderful!

There are a couple quirky things, such as in GMail, the Quick Contacts list expands into my message window, but I don’t expect perfection out of an alpha release.

I was excited to hear about the My Opera Synchronization feature but unfortunately have issues logging into MyOpera.com.

Also, I was extremely disappointed and confused at all the keyboard shortcut changes. I immediately edited them in the preferences > advanced menu (which thankfully is very simple). I rely on those shortcuts and having them all changed on me is quite frustrating.

Overall, I look forward to seeing Opera 9.5 polished and working great. I definitely like what I see so far!

Entry Filed under: browsers, internet, opera