Sunday, November 13, 2005

Fandom of the Opera

Today I made the transition from Firefox to Opera web browser. Firefox was incredible when it was released. Tabs. Google search in the browser itself. Quick links. But now those revolutionary additions are the standard and imitation pushes the web browser product forward.

Enter Opera, which recently became free. I wasn't too keen on switching browsers but after the 100th time of not being able to view media because I lacked the right plug in, I though I'd give it a serious shot. I'm now hooked. Opera has the following advantages.

1. It comes with all the plugins you'll need to view web movies, etc. This was a main reason why I switched as FF doesn't come with any.

2. I like to multitask when I'm online and to keep all the webpages straight, I want to group similar tabs together. FF puts the tabs in the order you've created them and won't let you switch. Opera does; it's very nice.

3. Adding bookmarks is less awkward in Opera than in FF; where you are putting a link is much more clear.

4. It might be my imagination but I think Opera runs faster.

There might be other things Opera has; I'm still exploring it. Not yet sure what the "rewind" and "magic wand" does yet. You can download Opera for free here.

NOTE: Mike just told me I've been using an old version of FF; the new one lets you move tabs. Didn't solve the other problems I have with it, though.

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