Software Gadgets

As a web designer, I have to have all the major browsers available to test web pages, so I downloaded the new Opera 9.0 this morning. I really was not expecting much as Opera 7 and Opera 8 simply did not impress me when compared to Firefox. However, to my surprise, I am very impressed with Opera 9. Am I impressed enough to switch from Firefox to Opera? I don't know yet, but with today's experiences with Opera 9 behind me, I am definitely considering it. It will definitely be my backup browser of choice if I decide to stay with Firefox.

Opera has always claimed to be the "World's Fastest Browser" -- Opera 9 may actually live up to that claim. It seems to load most pages very fast -- much faster than Firefox (even when tweaked with Fasterfox) which means it leaves IE 6 in the dust. It has a number of new features (list taken from the Opera web site):

BitTorrent
You don't need a separate BitTorrent application to download large files. Simply click a torrent link and start the download.

Add your favorite search engines
Right-click on the site's search field and select "Create search" from the menu.

Site preferences
Want to view a site in a different way or deny certain cookies? Want to block pop-ups on certain sites only? Right click and select "Edit site preferences".

Improved rich text editing
Use advanced text editing features for today's most popular Web applications.

Content blocker
Remove ads or images - it's up to you. Right-click (CTRL-click on the Mac) on the Web page and choose "Block content".

Thumbnail preview
It is easy to have many tabs open at once in Opera. But exactly which tab had that video you wanted? Hover your mouse on any tab to see a thumbnail preview.

Widgets
Small Web applications (multimedia, newsfeeds, games and more) that make your desktop experience more fun. Use the Widgets menu to discover new widgets and access your favorites. Visit widgets.opera.com to learn more.

The ability to edit site preferences is very nice. You can customize Opera for specific sites (including telling it to pretend to be IE if needed) and Opera uses those settings every time you visit the site. You can customize how Opera handles popups, cookies, scripts, images, sound, etc. This lets you turn off "features" on sites that use them in annoying ways, while allowing other sites to continue to use them. You can even assign a custom user style sheet or custom javascript code to a site.

The Content Blocker works a lot like the Adblock extension to Firefox in practice, although the way you add items to block is slightly different. I suspect you even import a slightly edited version of your Adblock list, but I haven't tried this yet.

I thought the thumbnail previews were silly -- until I saw them in action when I had a large number of tabs open. Widgets do not impress me. As far as I can tell, you have to have Opera running for Opera Widgets to appear on your desktop and there are only a few widgets available. Yahoo's Gadget Engine has hundreds and runs even without a browser open.

Opera is also very standards compliant. This can be a good thing, but it also means that Opera sometimes renders web pages the way they should be in theory as opposed to how other browsers display them.

Overall, I like Opera 9 and will use it more than I did Opera 7 or Opera 8. However, I'm just not sure it can replace Firefox for me. There are a number of nice extensions for Firefox that I'm not sure I can easily live without. Time will tell. Nevertheless, I am rating Opera 9 a full five stars. I strongly suggest you give it a try.

Rating: 5.0
Operating System: Windows, Linux, MacOS
License: Freeware
Price: Free
Version: 9.0 (Build 8501)
Web Site: http://www.opera.com/
See Screenshots