Friday, May 1, 2009

Opera

In early April I posed that I was using Google Chrome. It was brought up in the comments that Opera has many of the features of Chrome. Honestly, I hadn't realized that people were so attached to their web browsers so I decided to run a test. I've been using Opera exclusively on one computer exclusively for most of April and here are my findings.

Opera renders a page slower than Chrome.

Scrolling a page is way slower in Opera.

I could not load pages from Barrons (www.barrons.com) so I had to use another web browser for this website.

Chrome works way better with GMail than Opera. Two things that bugged me are loosing formatting when copying and pasting and the rendering in general was off. Way off in some cases.

For some odd reason I started using AIM in GMail (I know, don't even mention it), well breaking out the chat from the web browser into it's own little mini web browser chat window doesn't work as it does in any other web browser. Opera goes MDI on me while all other web browsers go SDI.

I've become accustomed to how Chrome opens a new tab via right click open in new tab to the right of the current tab and not selected. Opera selects the new tab which isn't always the choice I want when reading. Typically I open links to read later and continue reading as to not stop the train of thought and have to revisit it later. Opera interrupts my train of thought.

I'd be willing to bet that Opera is better on mobile devices. I'd love to give it a try on my iPod Touch. Safari on the iPod Touch leaves some to be desired.

5 comments:

Moritz Beutel said...

> Chrome works way better with GMail than Opera.

You wouldn't guess... :)

Thomas Mueller said...

re opening a tab in the background: Try middle click (scroll wheel) or shift+ctrl+click.

Barrons renders fine for me (Opera 9.64 on Linux), but it is possible that I am missing something because I have no idea what it is supposed to look like.

GMail works for me, but there are some weird effects sometimes.

I exclusively use Opera, but I am not trying to convince you. Just keep using whatever browser you like...

Anonymous said...

I tried both Opera Mobile and the Android Browser (thats the closest thing to Chrome for Mobile) on the same phone (a HTC TyTN II, which can run Android) and the Android Browser is a LOT better than Opera.

Anonymous said...

+1 for trying :-)

Have used opera for many, many years, couldn't do without. I'm very anxious for it's feature, though.

Anonymous said...

I used NetCaptor for a long time (written in Delphi, wrapping around IE). It just had so many little shortcuts to make web browsing faster. I finally managed to move myself to FireFox this year and once all the requisite add-ins were installed i am up to my past level of productivity. I did play with Chrome but found it very lacking in functionality (e.g. filling in your own forms and passwords, how last century is that?)

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