[kkkkk]

If you like speedy browsers, then Opera will be your cup of tea. It is compact, but don't let its size fool you, because it is full of useful features. I switched from Firefox to Opera two years ago, and has never looked back (well, i think most people do that when they switch from IE to FF, and they don't look back either).
Each new version of Opera surprises me with the elegance in its sheer simplicity. Perhaps these features are already available in other browser, but Opera has always been the ringleader when it comes to innovation.

Since FF3 is getting a lot of attention, have a look how they fare in terms of memory usage against each other. (Okay, FF3 wins..)
http://avencius.nl/content/firefox-3-vs-op...50-memory-usage



Here are some features that i love in Opera, version 9.5 has just been released:


Speed Dial
On your mobile phone, people usually put their special other's number on 1, mum's number on 2, best buds on 3.. In Opera, you do so for the 'important' sites in your life. When i open a new tab (or just startup the browser), the speed dial will be shown and i can click on either of them to bring me to the important site. I can also go to any sites on my Speed Dial using a keyboard short-cut. For example, my Gmail is on '1', so i just click CTRL+1 to access it. Super fast.


Notes
When i come across some text online which i find interesting, i simply highlight the text, and then 'Copy to note' it. Think of it as a Scrapbook for your browsing needs. I personally am very particular with categorizing my info, so i placed them into different folders. And when i want to look for a particular something? 'Quick Find' can help me locate it in milliseconds.

I used to save snippets of text all over the computer on txt files. But ever since i got acquainted with this feature, i find that too troublesome. And this feature is something that i bet everyone of us will find useful. (There is a firefox extension called scrapbook that does about the same thing)


Sync
If you have used computers for some time. Don't you hate it when system files got corrupted, browser got uninstalled with data wiped, or simply your old computer died? And yeah, you lost all your bookmarks, which were painstakingly saved and organized over a long time.. well, since the last time you lost your bookmark anyway.

Get an 'My Opera' account (free) and you can now sync all your bookmarks, speed dials and notes to the account (just like on FF with google, i know!)! This account can then be used to sync your other computers. So if you have one at work, one at home, and mobile opera on the go, this feature is going to rock for you. And of course, in the event of emergency, you can retrieve them bookmarks in 3 seconds. (Syncronization is to be done via File > Syncronize Opera, and when you're done just click on stop!


Little things
I love the new sexy skin.
I love the tab preview that you get when you scroll over the tab.
I love the tab text that turns blue when a site has finished loading.
I love the 'trash bin' that tracks the tabs that i have recently closed, and which i can simply click on to go back to. (And by the way, when i reopen the tab, the previous history in it is still there!)
I love that i can use the address bar to query a search engine using a G for example.
I love that i can search not only url of the sites visited, but content of them.
I love that i can really customize the browser any way i want easily. For some reason in FF (the prev version that i used) it was not that easy to make it as comfortable as possible.
I love that i can disable image loading with the click of a button, located snugly in the tiny toolbar i can collapse easily to maximise screen estate.
I love the 'panel' which i hide at the left side (you can hide it anywhere), and can bring out easily to look at my notes, bookmark, history etc. (panel is highly customizable too).
Damn it. I just love everything on Opera!
And Widgets! And Skins (i am using the Tango theme, which is very sexy, in the nerdy manner, of course)!

Light light light
Well, this is not a feature. But i just want to emphasize on the speed of Opera. It is extremely fast to startup, renders sites very quickly, and almost never crashes. In the event that it does, i can of course restore the last session (just like in FireFox).


Opera is the sexiest browser by far. It can do what the other browsers can, and then some more.

The down side is the fact that some pages may show up wrongly on Opera since its not tested on it. I know not very much but Opera has a good track record of adhering to the web standards so its rendering engine is marvellous. But yeah, i bloody want Firebug on Opera (and the other neat extensions that FF has). They actually have something for developers this time round called DragonFly (http://www.opera.com...ts/dragonfly/). So techies could check that out too.

Download now!

[TyneeTom]

Using all 3 at once is also helpful.

Internet Explorer, Mozilla, Opera.


Very useful for cheating in browser games!

Since they all use their own seperate cookies.


YEAH!!

[nK)Duke]

I like the new smooth scrolling. I can't believe that scrolling is so much fun .

edit: I also believe that it's alot faster. Or I'm just more patient because I can use the time to scroll lol

[kkkkk]

I like the new smooth scrolling. I can't believe that scrolling is so much fun .

edit: I also believe that it's alot faster. Or I'm just more patient because I can use the time to scroll lol

I feel that its a lot faster too. No, not just because of the scrolling. Your scrolling comment made me laugh. Haha.

[dot1q]

The single main item which distinguishes Opera (as metioned already), is it's page rendering times. FF and IE doesn't come even close. Everything else is negligible in my opinion and overall I don't see it being a better browser than FF. Basically some features it has and FF doesn't and vice versa. The major downside being least compatibility with sites compared to FF and IE.

[kkkkk]

The single main item which distinguishes Opera (as metioned already), is it's page rendering times. FF and IE doesn't come even close. Everything else is negligible in my opinion and overall I don't see it being a better browser than FF. Basically some features it has and FF doesn't and vice versa. The major downside being least compatibility with sites compared to FF and IE.

I agree, and i couldn't have put it better myself. It all boils down to personal preference.

[StupidGurl]

i think ill download this for the heck of it and try it out. [;

i have IE and FF so ill see which i like better.

Edit. okay i have to say. i LOVE opera. they have a speed dial. except internet version, how kewl is that? XD and the skins are gorgeous.

[babiloveyoo]

Nice thnx 4 sharing Im going to download it right now.

[dot1q]

I havent tried Opera in a while (9+ months) and I must say the rendering time is faster than ever before in the new version~! Really impressed.

[Dokbokki]

Opera is OK, and it's one of popular choice considering it comes with Opera Mail client, but I hate it.

[kkkkk]

I like to demostrate to my friends Opera. It takes around 10 minutes to explain everything. And then they'll use it over FF/IE. And i dig that feeling.

Something that i like is to keep the 'panel' of notes, bookmarks, history, etc collapsed at the left. Go to Appearance > Panels. Turn the Panel placement dropdownlist to Off. Then tick the checkbox for Show Panel at Edge of Window. This way there is a very tiny bar at the side of the screen that you can use to access your panels with just a click.

[CandyRain]

thanks..
since i can't use FF for opening hi5..so i would try opera..=)))

[nanshi]

I love Opera. Been using it loyally since I found out about it ... ~2 years ago (?).

Don't really like the new 9.5 Opera Native skin though. I'm too used to the standard version, I suppose. Still, I like how everything's customizable, right down to the menus and the buttons you put on it. Thankfully, the original Opera skin is still available from download from the Opera Skins page. What a lot of Opera users have commented is that a lot of the features in FF that require add-ons are native to Opera. I can't remember specifics, but it's true. It loads pages faster, but my big thing is that it doesn't use as much memory as FF and IE do. Tha

I still have FF and IE installed on my computer (some programs/sites are only compatible with FF and/or IE).

[chocolateturtle]

Oprah is awesome, faster and less glitchy. I dont know why, but firefox has been freezing and slowing down on me lately...also the browser seems cleaner and smaller than firefox <3

[DKYang]

FF3 is still in beta stages, so some of y'all are probably still using FF2 and comparing it with the newest version of Opera.

Nice little review though, although I'll never use it except on phones. Firefox has a bigger community and a lot of addons that make it better. Plus, it has an IE tab so I don't have to open up IE when going to a Korean site which is a big plus.

[Atmosphere.]

But too bad the sites I know doesn't support Opera, so I guess I'll wait til they accept Opera browsers then I will download it. Thanks for reminding me though :] I wonder why they named it Opera in the first place <__<

[DKYang]

If anyone wants to try out the Speed Dial feature and don't want to download/install Opera. Here's a addon for FF: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/5721

[dot1q]

Don't know if this is just me, but several things are buggy. Most of it is just minor but the most noticeable thing is on occassions, clicking links and typing a new address in to the address bar wont actually go to that page. I have to either click the link a second time or hit enter again. Happens often enough where I can't use it. Could be just me or it could be a bug as the same behavior does not happen on my Vista x86 and XP images. Using Vista x64 on primary PC where this is happening. Maybe Vista x64 issue?

[peachan]

I used to use Opera! but like SsUaSmAmNy said, some of the sites I used didn't support it. but I really liked it and after reading this thread....I think I'm going to go re-download it now! haha

[bebeETOILE]

I'm going to DL this now and try it out.