Ten Reasons Why I Love The New Opera Browser

I swear, my surfing experience has improved for the better using the new Opera browser. Everything definitely comes up much faster without noticeable delays. Compared to Firefox 3 and Internet Explorer 7, this thing flies and I'm really enjoying using it.

I don't understand why Opera isn't more widely used. Maybe its just because IE is installed with Windows by default and the techy types tend to use Firefox and Konqueror. Then you got the Macheads using Safari. But Opera, clearly to me, is a better choice.

Here are ten reasons why you should use the new Opera 9.63 browser.

1. Voice activated commands

   Imagine sitting down in front of your computer and surfing the Internet by talking to your browser to perform actions. You can issue commands like reading text, moving forward/backward, refreshing a page, going to the start/end of a page, scrolling up and down, and generally all the manual tasks that you do by hand.

   For the physically handicapped I can see being extremely useful and for people like me who can't type its even more helpful. But think about how much this will reduce the toll on your arms, hands, and fingers to avoid getting carpel tunnel syndrome over the long run.

2. Draggable Tabs To Windows

   Multi monitor users will appreciate this feature. Users can simply drag a tab and drop it in another area of the desktop to create a new browser window. Try this with Firefox and you will create a desktop shortcut to the page you are reading. With Internet Explorer, it does nothing.

3. Simple RSS Presentation

   Fire up Opera, Firefox, and Internet Explorer. Surf to KerryOnWorld's RSS feed at KerryOnWorld's RSS feed and notice how each browser renders its output. Which one do you prefer?

   Internet Explorer presents everthing in a vertical list forcing you to scroll down on large RSS feeds. It does have a nice sorting and category box along the right side but still, you cant see everything in one page.

   Firefox is even less useful just displaying a vertical list of page links.

   With Opera, you get simple. Just a nice neat layout of columns with the titles of articles. People read from left to right and up and down. Opera has got the right implementation.

4. Speed dial

   When you first run Internet Explorer, what do you get? Well if it the home page is not set you get an amazing blank page. With Firefox its the same deal - a blank page, the Google page, or even the last viewing session.

   Opera does something different. It shows you a 3x3 grid of home page images to click on. Simply click on the grid and a box comes where you can enter in a URL or choose from one of your favorite bookmarks.

5. Built-In RSS Feed Reader

   IE and Firefox don't have RSS readers built in. With Opera you do and its one of the best RSS readers I've used. You can manage your RSS feeds by choosing what websites you want to monitor. You can choose among several layouts like classic email view or three column view. You also can search within the RSS feed and label the content.

6. Smaller Memory Footprint In Typical Use Scenarios

   I did a quick test with each browser attempting to see how much memory each takes up. The system configuration consisted of a Windows XP SP3 box with 2GB memory. Each browser had no add-ins.

   I ran each of the tests below and observed Task Manager, noting the Mem Usage column for each browser process.

                                    Opera 9.63   IE 7     Firefox 3.05
   -------------------------------------------------------------------
   Launch to a blank page           24MB         18MB      26MB
   Surf to google.com               25MB         23MB      30MB
   New tab kerryonworld.com         29MB         30MB      33MB
   New window kobashicomputing.com  41MB         44MB      46MB
   

   Clearly, Opera wins as you do more with it.

7. Faster Page Loads

   Now I have to admit that this wasn't accurately tested but for what its worth it really didn't matter. What I did line up each browser, clear everything out of the cache, and put each browser on each of my 3 screens.

   I then typed in various URLS and hit the go button.

                                Opera 9.63   IE 7       Firefox 3.05
   ----------------------------------------------------------------------
   kerryonworld.com             3 seconds    5 seconds  5 seconds
   kobashicomputing.com         3 seconds    4 seconds  4 seconds
   Amazon.com                   3 seconds    6 seconds  5 seconds
   msn.com                      7 seconds    5 seconds  8 seconds
   yahoo.com                    5 seconds    4 seconds  5 seconds
   

8. Smarter Positioning of Toolbar Buttons

   In Internet Explorer 7, the refresh button is poised on the far right of the URL bar. What a terrible decision that was. With Firefox and Opera, the refresh button is on the left hand side of the URL box. Now think of this. You move the mouse into the URL address box and then type Where is your mouse cursor? That's right, on the left hand side. If you want refresh a page after it loads, you have to move the mouse all the way over to the right hand side of the page. For wide screen users, thats a pain.

   Another issue is the closing of the tab windows. With IE 7, you have to move the mouse and hover it over the tab and right click and close. With Opera and Firefox you just click on the "X" button - thats one click less.

9. Simple, Less Confusing Bookmarking

   Firefox went overboard when it designed its bookmarking feature. There's so much crap on the Bookmarks menu and confusing stuff going on that the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid) still stands. Create a bookmark and drag and drop it into a folder. Forget all the other junk.

10. Quick Search

    You can go type search terms directly in the address box and up will come matches to website pages that you previously visited. So for example if you visited amazon.com and viewed some pages on digital cameras, you can type 'digital camera' in the address bar and Opera will suggest pages that you previously visited. Think of this as another way to re-find the pages you visited in case you forgot to bookmark them.

If you are a hardcore browser user, Opera may not be the one for you. But if you are looking to surf the Internet faster and appreciate the little small things discussed above, try Opera. I think you will find you will love it more than anything else out there.