Released: Opera 9 Beta

April 20th, 2006

http://opera.com/pressreleases/en/2006/04/20/

As with all new versions of Opera, the latest will continue to make the browser more user-friendly, less overwhelming, more unique, and easier to switch to.

Notable Features

Rather than looking at the changelist and going over all of the features that Opera spouts for you on their press release, I’ll mention the features that i notice and use every day.

1. Block Content: Allows you to manually block images and content on a page so it will not be displayed. Perfect to let you remove ads and annoying images.

   I was always flustered that Opera did not have an AdBlock as FF did. However, this new feature is much better! It is all manual yet very easy to customize.

   Simply click on any website, then click “Block Content” now click the content you want to block. Click “done” at the top and those images will now be completely removed from your viewing.

2. Thumbnail Previews within Tabs: Hover over any tab and you’ll see a pop-up info box that has a thumbnail of the tab, along with the usual information of title, address and encoding.

   FireFox Extension Equivalent: Tab Catalog

3. Tabs!: I know I know, Opera has always had tabs. However, the browser had called them pages and tried to use them as such.

   They still offer the multiple-document interface ((i.e. you can resize tabbed windows within the large window)) but the default setting is the same as FireFox: to use tabs and have close buttons on each physical tab.

   This ctrl+tab feature makes it a lot easier for people to switch to Opera from FF and also makes it easier for IE users to fully understand the tab concept. I always felt that the pages made Opera unique, but as long as I can still turn that feature on ((Tools > Preferences > Advanced > Show close button on each tab ))

   FireFox Extension Equivalent: Tab Mix Plus ((this allows you change your tab preferences and give your FF tabs the flexibility and customization that Opera provides you))

4. Page Rendering: I always hear the complaint from people trying out Opera that suchandsuchwebsite won’t load. Recently I found myself in this situation.

   After spending an hour looking for a decent online bookmarking tool, I found the perfect one except it’s neat gadgets didn’t work in Opera 8; at all. So, upon viewing the site with 9beta, as long as I have the browser identify itself as IE ((Quick Preferences F12)), the site looks great!

   Not quite the support I’d like but since Opera is flexible enough to let me change it’s identity, then I have no problems with trying to find a hack around a botchy site.

5. Create Search: This is a feature that I loved in FireFox and am very glad that Opera decided to implement it. On any website, simply right-click in the search box on that site, then click “Create Search” now give the search a keyword and you’re good to go.

   By default, Opera has a bunch of pre-set search keywords but that was never enough for me. I use “g” for google, “e” for ebay, and “z” for amazon allthetime!

   I recently set up “m” for imdb, “p” for wikipedia, and “t” for rotten tomatoes. So, now I just type into the address bar ((F8)) “t saw2″ and it will simply go to the search resuilts, without me having to go to the main page.

There’s also widgets for your desktop and an auto BitTorrent downloader but I have little use for them.

Old Features but New To Me

Opera’s RSS Feeder: I have no idea why it took me so long to get into rss feeds. On a page that allows it, there will be the nifty orange “rss” image box in the address bar ((next to the url)) if you just click it, then hit “ok” to subscribe, you will now be getting feeds from the site.

No more having to check the website constantly to look for updates, now the updates come to you! And most importantly, it’s sfw.

Entry Filed under: browsers, opera