What people are saying about Opera 9 (Part 1)
Published June 22nd, 2006 1:19 PM EDT By Daniel GoldmanThere have been lots of positive coverage and reviews of Opera 9.
I compiled some of what the media, blogger, and others have been saying about Opera 9.
If you’d like me to include your opinion of Opera 9 in part 2 of this series, write about it on your site and send me an email (and of course link to Opera Watch).
eWeek
In an eWeek article titled “Opera 9 Is Music to eWEEK Labs’ Ears” by Jim Rapoza, Opera 9 received high marks for its innovation. Opera 9 received the eWEEK Labs Analyst’s Choice award.
“It’s a good bet that if you want to see the features that other Web browsers will be adding in a year or two, you should download Opera 9″, says eWeek.
“In our tests, we found Opera 9 to be one of the best Web browsing tools we’ve used in a long time, which is why we are giving Opera 9 an eWEEK Labs Analyst’s Choice award.”
David Chartier / TUAW:
“This version definitely seems snappier now that it’s Universal, and (say what you have to) these new enhancements like a built-in BitTorrent client show that Opera is blazing a trail faster than its competition. Give this version a whirl if you haven’t touched Opera in a while but are still curious about it.”
Walt Zwirko / WFAA-TV:
“This week, there emerged another challenger: the new version of Opera.” “The current editions of Opera and Firefox are polished and have real benefits for heavy ‘Net users. Do yourself a favor and try one/or both!”
Peter Sbarski / The Inquirer:
“My initial impression is that Opera 9 is a pretty damn excellent browser. It is extremely quick and stable. It works properly with all my favourite websites. It has all the necessities web surfers need such as a popup blocker and form auto-completion.”
Gordon Kelly / Trusted Reviews:
Opera 9 is the most comprehensive version of the software yet with the introduction of OS X Tiger-esque open source ‘Widgets’, inbuilt Bittorent support, a ‘Content Blocker’ to knock out ads and flash banners, rich text editing and Firefox style customizable search engines.
Brian Osborne / Geek.com:
I think Opera Software gets it: a truly open Web browser is one that is accessible to the masses. By offering the browser for a number of platforms and in 25 languages, it seems Opera Software shares this belief.
Ed Sutherland / InternetNews.com:
“Opera 9 Browser Provides a Little Drama”
David A. Utter / Web Pro News:
“Using Opera also allows the user to chuckle heartily at IE security alerts.” “Opera definitely merits attention from Internet users.”
Justin Mann / TechSpot.com:
“Opera tends to be a quick, feature-rich browser that’s definitely worth looking at, and the fact it is cross-platform makes it great for people who don’t like to switch standards.”
Paul Hosking / IT Wire:
“Opera is the shining beacon of diversity.”
Simon Willison:
“It’s an impressive package - it’s fast, it renders every page I’ve throw at it so far, it passes Acid 2, supports Canvas and SVG and has a neat widgets implementation.”
Simon Fodden:
“Give this thing a try; it’s fast and loaded with features that would make your browsing life easier”
Adam Fields:
“It’s fast, it’s smooth, standards support is better, they made some usability fixes, and it’s pleasant.”
George Burnett:
“All in all this has been a great new release and has provided enough new features and functionality to actually lure me away from Firefox and all of my extensions. Opera 9 seems to run faster and include all the functionality I use in Firefox by default.”
Ah Knight:
“Its still the fastest browser”
Gomeler.com:
“Now that I have Firefox, Flock, and Opera to choose from for browsers, I am beginning to notice that I spend more time with Opera and Flock. I guess now Firefox just hasn’t got all the features I expect from a browser.”
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using
For a change opera is getting good reviews. Previously shoddy reviewers from reputed journals like Washington Posts had damanged it reputation with bad and biased reviews.
using
“It has all the necessities web surfers need such as a popup blocker and form auto-completion.”
Auto-completion?
using
“Auto-completion?”
Probably the Wand.
using
Opera has real customizable search engines, FF merely has extensions. And I’ve been customizing search engines in Opera since 5.0, when Mozilla Phoenix (FF’s predecessor) had very few search engine extensions.
using
Take a look at Tools > Preferences > Wand… If you fill out your information (I.e name, address, phone, email, etc) in that section, it will be inserted by Opera into forms (I.e. your name will be inserted into the name field in the form, likewise your address, phone…) just like the wand works.
using
Please don’t try to pass off the Wand as autocompletion. It’s so limited that it’s not even fair to use the word. Alas, we wait in vain for actual autocompletion, where any field remembers anything that you’ve previously typed.
One review omitted: CNET. It’s not a happy, happy, joy, joy review, so perhaps that’s the reason.
using
Rick, the auto-completion is not referring to the wand, take a look at it.
The Cnet review is for part 2 of this series.
using
Depends on what you want from autocomplete. I don’t want to accidentally re-enter mistyped search queries from months ago
I don’t want to a name field trying to autofill my internet handle when I’m filling out a business form… and so on.
I actually prefer Opera’s approach of only inserting pre-defined items.
Still, I can see it’d be good to have an option to remember everything - that seems popular, even if I personally wouldn’t use it
using
oops, guess Q doesn’t get styled here… should have used BLOCKQUOTE
using
Finally Ctrl + Enter for .com.
But why no Shift + Enter (for .net) and Shift + Alt + Enter (for .org)?
using
Done
using
Opera’s autocompletion feature never works. The only thing it suceeds in doing is filling the email address on ocaasions. I really hope opera provides the functionalities of AI Roboforum in future.
using
Rick wrote “One review omitted: CNET. It’s not a happy, happy, joy, joy review, so perhaps that’s the reason.”
CNET deliveres a pretty poor review. Not because it tells Firefox is better, but because the author seems to have no idea about what he is writing.
http://reviews.cnet.com/Opera_9/4505-9241_7-31929435-2.html?tag=sub
To name just the two most obvious things (there are lots more but they’d need explanation):
CNET: “BitTorrent-like media players”
- Shouldn’t CNET know what BitTorrent is?
CNET: “the new trash can icon”
- Shouldn’t CNET know about what is new in the product or at least be able to read the change log (it’s quite a bit to read)?
On the other side the article is telling pretty good things about Opera, except for some (partly false) drawbacks on details.
CNET: “Opera 9 is a good Internet browser. It is light-years ahead of Microsoft’s new Internet Explorer 7 beta. ” … “We really do like Opera 9 …”
using
The funny thing about the CNET review is how self-contradictory it is…
They say that in the end, people who “simply want a good, secure browser” should use Firefox. But since Opera is more secure than Firefox, that must imply that Opera is not a good browser… And that contradicts other parts of this crappy review.
Odd, odd, odd.
using
@minghong because that replaces a popular feature of opening the address in new tab/background tab.
However you can configure it to do the same as the others though.
using
Nobody mentioned that they firefoxed opera up with this release. They even copied annoying “features” like the download window poping up after you save an image to your computer, AGH!
Hope Opera remember they have OLD users that like (and are used to) how opera behaves.
using
@Simon Houston, thanks. But I think it should be changed to Alt + Enter, as what Firefox does.
using
The Opera 9 browser is an awesome piece of work. When compared to the new IE7 beta (”Crash7″–cannot open 2 tabs at once), it is plain to see that you are being copied in many respects.
I absolutely LOVE the widgets feature, but wish you would encourage designers to include a ‘close’ button ON the widgets they design. I hate having to go to the drop down menu each time. Maybe a link to post directly to your blog is next (a la WordBlog?)
using
Ehi, IE7+ is a pretty decent browser, even if inferior to Opera 9/8 and Firefox.
using
Hi,
I love the Opera Browser, since 5.0 version. Basically because it is made for navigate, open, intuitive, light, and ready to to take advantage of the web in many ways (Dictionary, search, RSS, etc.) Currently I’m using 8.52. This time I had problems with the new version. My OS is Win 98 (may be is a reason). The point is that I’ve tried with the beta version and at the beginning i’ve got some messages from the error console, then I could go further and navigate, however it falled down many times, therefor I wait until the official release. When I installed it, at the beginning I’ve got a lot of messages from the error console and Opera9 couldn’t open the sites I tried to connect to.
Then I’m back at 8.52, wich I enjoy.
Bye,
Maurcio D.
mauricio.diazp@gmail.com
Colombia
using
Maurcio, did you install Opera 9 over Opera 8? If so, try installing Opera 9 in a new directory.
using
I love the ease of use of Opera…but I also was wondering about the auto-completion feature. Are there any tweak programs out there that anyone knows of that could be installed to add this functionality to Opera?