PC Pro Magazine calls Opera ‘the only truly alternative browsing choice’
Published August 1st, 2007 1:25 PM EDT By Daniel GoldmanThe September issue of PC Pro magazine refers to Opera as “the only truly alternative browsing choice.”
“It’s actually quite hard to truly escape Internet Explorer or Firefox, because many alternative browsers just wrap a different user interface around the same rendering engines that drive the market leaders.
Which leaves us with the only truly alternative browsing choice, built from the ground up with its own rendering engine: Opera.…Opera provides an alternative you can use daily.
The innovative features are all there, from anti-phishing protection and integrated BitTorrent downloading, through to thumbnail site tab previews and desktop widgets, and even navigation voice control. There’s a built-in mail client, top-notch security, standards compliance and excellent documentation backed by a thriving support community.
With its fast and innovative operation, Opera is our alternative browser of choice.”
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This is exactly what I’ve been saying all along. I appreciate (as a usability guy) consistency and migrating users and having similar functionality, but I also appreciate the ground-up, different look and feel, different way of viewing things (like the address/tab bar discussion).
Regarding the oft cited: “If Opera wants more marketshare it need to do X to make it look like Firefox/IE/Safari…” If that statement is true (it’s usually not), then quite frankly I’d prefer it *didn’t* get more marketshare. If I wanted a product that looked and worked like everyone else- I’d just use everyone else’s product.
There’s certainly a place for the “easily migrated” similar approach software, and yeah, it’s probably more usable for the masses since it at least has the advantage of familiarity, but that doesn’t mean you need to spite those that want different UIs that actually make them more efficient.
…and of course, the reality caveat needs to be inserted: I really do think Opera is quite familiar out of the box to any other browser. Apart from skin choice, there’s not any amazingly different concepts- its just that once you dig into it a bit you uncover more and more.
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Just an idea: Opera should have a first-time run video. Like the one you get when you install Mac OS X! The user could be asked to enter personal information (for the Wand) and set a few preferences. Then there could be a video that shows off some Opera original features. (Tabbed browsing is too common to be mentioned, but reload-every and the inbuilt email client could be mentioned.)
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I like especially the fact that Opera is not trying to be like other web browsers out there. I found that Firefox is easier to move to for someone using Internet Explorer a lot compared to making him move to Opera as this looks and feels different.
Similarly, I cannot use Firefox or IE efficiently anymore as I have been using Opera for years. The unique feel in Opera is what is keeping me using it. Trying to make Opera more like the other browsers would be taking away the main reason I use it. I don’t know if this is the case for many other people, though.
Needless to say, Opera truly deserves this kind of recognization from magazines and other media. Of the part quoted I couldn’t agree more. The development team has done truly amazing work with Opera.
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Very good answers above
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So to now be considered alternative, you have to be an alternative to Firefox?
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As I said some time ago ( http://www.favbrowser.com/why-its-not-enough-to-have-all-the-greatest-features/) , with bad or no strategy any browser (even if it’s the best one) sooner or later will fail.
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@-gary: it kinda has; and with Mozilla’s latest comments about dropping Thunderbird because it does not make money, I wonder what is becoming of the Foundation.
If it were not for the numerous, many excellent, extensions built by Firefox users, Firefox would be just an ok browser if compared with Opera’s out-of-the-box functionality.
Unlike many, this article mentions Opera’s innovation; frankly, in the browser market, Opera ongoingly leads the way. I just long for a wider recognition (and market share).
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Opera definitely an excellent alternative. In the early days of my web surfing activities (late 90’s, early 2000), my favourite browser always be IE. Nevertherless, i’ve already heard about Opera, give it a try but later on, just forgot about it because at that time, the default setting of opera after installation giving me a headache to figure out the features. Also, at that time you have to pay if u want to use Opera without the ads. So i just go back with IE.
After that, when firefox came into market in the late 2003 (if i’m not mistaken :P), i tried firefox but still it’s a no-no for me because my pc will hangs when using it. This resulting me to go back to IE. Throughout these years, i’ve been installing and updating FF and Opera and then forgot about them.. however, it all changed one day. I found out that IE 7 renders some site badly and had to find an alternative browser since then. I try FF, but still i don’t like it because it still make my pc hangs. Then i try out the new opera, and I surprise that it is now free and the default view after installation is more simple and easy to understand. From that day, I’ve always love to use Opera.. with its Speed Dial feature which I favourite the most!
Good job Opera Team.. it’s not only an alternative, its a better and smarter choice
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Eddie, I agree with you completely. Pleasing the masses isn’t as important as making sure that you don’t mimic everyone else. A product becomes worthless when it loses it’s originality.
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it sounds like someone pushed some pushed some money into that article
no, truely: we all know that opera is cool even without pushing (not like googlefox)
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“If I wanted a product that looked and worked like everyone else- I’d just use everyone else’s product.”
er…NO - you would be using a product that “looks like a freind” to the site you go to… and you would have the functionality you want, without the bad bits you hate….
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hmmm….
don’t know if Opera is just an alternative. To me Opera is the browser, fast rendering or not. And there are no alternatives. Believe me, I have been looking.
I max out to about 25 sites I visit, and there is no way I can load, reload, go back and forward on each site quicker than in Opera.
I save about 30 minutes a day, being able to go back and forward without reloading a page.
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doggy-
I’m not sure what your statement means- but the “…to the site you go to..” implies that your talking about how browsers render web pages. That’s different then what I was talking about. You’re talking about web standards and having each browser maker interpret them… hopefully they do so in the same way and all support open standards. I’m talking about client development, the actual browser chrome features etc. It has nothing to do with the webpage, but everything to with how we keep track, annotate, bookmark, highlight those pages. In otherwords, what *we* as individuals want to do with our browsing experience.
If that’s not your intention, then your statement is unclear.. functionality for what?
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yes, I was talking more about webpages.. the ‘user interface’ part is up to the designer of the browser, and is a **very* complex part..
- If it was simple, there would definately be more than just 3 or 4 browsers out there… (and by this I mean visible, independant ones!!)
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Agreed. I was leaving webpages out of my points. Although certainly if a page isn’t rendered correctly, that’s the biggest user experience issue of all.
But let the record show that i was talking about the browser. I *do* want my sites to look and feel the same across all browsers
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the trouble about page rendering though, is some browsers are fed the wrong code…
there are so many ‘petty’ site designers out there, who have only tested in FF & IE, and comlpain about why a component has moved a very small amount.. and some who hate it so much that they just block opera!
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My alternative browsers are IE and FF.
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latest example here..
http://my.opera.com/community/forums/findpost.pl?id=2174558
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The same discussion year after year, the users making a lot of good suggestions without getting responses.
The truth is Opera Desktop is not an alternative because it is difficult to use for non technical users (Among some technicals), the article says it is but compared with small UIs/browsers using common engines.
But now that FF 2.0.0.6 renders faster than Opera, without all its compatibility problems (I love how it works with Youtube). The most significant advantage has been defeated, if the things does not change, the same would occur with other “advantages” as the standards commitment was.
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off topic: vote for Opera in the DesktopLinux poll
http://www.desktoplinux.com/cgi-bin/survey/survey.cgi?id=0813200712407