Opera: A Substantial Review of the Top 4 Web Browsers in the Planet Today – Part 5 of 5
Opera may not be a dramatic work or a house for music, but as a modern web browser, it could also bring grand opera events into your desktops, mobiles and TVs. Opera offers one of a kind internet browsing experience.
Opera has over 350 million users worldwide and it is not just a typical web browser. It is a package of modern web browsing solutions for internet users, operators, advertisers, publishers, developers, organizations, and enterprises.
Do you want to know more about Opera? Here’s my substantial review of this web browser built by the Scandinavians.
Apps
The Opera Mobile Store hosts more than 300,000 apps and games that are cross-platform, cross-browser, and cross-device. The apps are developed for Android, Windows mobile, Java, Symbian, Blackberry, iOS and HTML5 technologies.
I tried playing this HTML5 game called GTC HEAT CITY using Opera for computers and the experience was nice. Good graphics, fast, except for the ads that made me wait for about five to ten seconds. With 2 million apps downloaded each day (according to the store), that’s a lot of revenue for Opera.
Opera will request you to create an account on their store so you can track your app purchases. If you want to develop and submit apps for Opera, you have to register first to their Publisher Portal.
For themes and extensions to your browser, simply click on the “O” menu and you can choose between built-in ones or those that are in their Add-ons site.
Reviews
Opera is not that popular in desktops, but on mobile devices. It’s the Opera mini that is giving Opera Software high revenue, with 7.73% mobile/tablet browser market share as of January 2015, according to NetMarketShare. Opera Software has other popular products. Opera Coast is a browser exclusive only for iOS. Opera TV browser, which delivers superior user experience to the TV screen, is their other money maker. Opera Pass and Opera Mediaworks are products that offer large scale solutions to businesses.
10TopTenReviews praised Opera web browser for its robust feature set, advanced security protocols and rapid speeds. It ranks 3rd overall on their 2015 Internet Browser Software Product Comparisons.
DigitalTrends highlighted on their November 2014 browser review that Opera’s “signature features distinguish the browser from the rest”.
Rapid speeds, signature features; are these the features that you want to have on your internet browser? How about the UI features?
User Interface
I decided to download and install the latest version of Opera (v27.0) and see how stuffs work in this browser. Unlike other browsers, Opera placed their menu on the top-left corner. I’m not sure about its significance but what I’ve noticed are these three unique sub-menus: Speed Dial, Discover and Opera Turbo.
Clicking the Speed Dial quickly brings you back to the default screen consisting of your bookmarked sites. Clicking the Opera Turbo returns nothing but I just realized that this single click already did two significant impacts to my browsing experience - data-saving and faster browsing. Discover is simply a quick link to the latest news and stories - RSS feeds you know.
Some of the icons, like the heart shape bookmark icon, are cleverly designed. Other features are just like what other browsers have.
Privacy and Security
Opera is designed to keep you safe and private. You can stay secure with your private browsing by using the New Private Window. With badges or tiny icons appearing on the combined search and address bar, you can be warned if the website you want to visit will expose you to phishing and malware threats.
Content blocking, using of security certificates, setting of Do not Track, and managing cookies are also part of Opera’s privacy and security features.
Standards Support
Opera follows the modern standards. Opera browser supports HTML, CSS, Accessibility, JavaScript, DOM, SVG, WebGL and APIs web technologies.
Extensibility
Extensibility is Opera’s game.
WebPlatform.org is Opera’s repository of information on how to use the technology that runs the web. It is a site dedicated to documenting and teaching people about open web standards. Beginners and experts can both use this site for their development needs.
Dev.Opera is another site where developers can find tools and useful resources including the Opera mini simulator, Opera TV emulator and various documentations on how to build extensions for the Chromium-based Opera browser.
Opera is big! That is how I want to describe this web browser.
For more substantial reviews about web browsers, read my posts about Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, Mozilla Firefox and web browsers.
