You can safely say, that very few people will be using Opera 5.11 (or whatever version) as their default Web Page Browser. This is not a surprise, because a large percentage of people don’t even know that there is a browser called Opera, let alone there being ones other than Microsoft Internet Explorer. I think the main reason for this is that if you have Windows as your Operating System (as most people will), you get Internet Explorer with it. Many people are happy enough with it, and don’t bother looking at the competition. This is the main problem for other Web Browsers, like Netscape Navigator and of course Opera. Their main problem is getting themselves known (not as hard for Netscape, as many people have heard of their browser), which is a big problem for Opera.
Now onto Opera itself. I first decided to try Opera, because my Internet Explorer stopped working (which I have now fixed thanks to Chips With Everything). I tried Netscape first, but I found to take a long time in loading up, and also wasn’t as quick as my previous Internet Explorer. I then read an article in a magazine, promoting Opera as the quickest Web Browser around. I them went off to their site and downloaded the free browser. Since doing so I haven’t bothered going back to Internet Explorer, because Opera is far quicker than it. I would say it would download and interpret a page and 25% quicker than Internet Explorer, which really shows up on my tedious 33.6kbps connection to Freeserve (which I am very disappointed with, and considering changing to a Cable NTL connection if available).
This is really a browser for the more experienced web surfer. Don’t get me wrong, beginner web surfers will be able to use this browser, they just may not be able to utilise its extra features. It is very similar in look to Internet Explorer, and works in the same way, just quicker. The main reason I would say it more for experienced web surfers, is that you need to experiment, and look around for its features. The one thing I couldn’t find out how to do was how to change the default Home Page, which was currently set to bring up three Opera Windows. This was very annoying, and I even had to go and look in the help file (which was a first for me), but I found out how to do, and if you would like to change it, you go to Navigation - Set Home Page. You may think that you be pretty obvious, but believe me it wasn’t. Now onto it’s features, which you may also probably find on most browser:
History:
I couldn’t find this at first, but it is a very useful tool. To access it follow the following path: Window - Special - History This then opens as a new browser window, and shows a list of all the page that have been visited since it was last cleared. This is very useful, an slightly better set out compared to its rivals history equivalent. They are listed, by day, then time, and then it also gives the pages title. It is very useful if you want to do a little spying on anyone else who uses your computer, for the internet, as the history is very discreet.
Email:
Opera also has an integrated email program, it operates just like any normal email program, and is only harder to use because it needs to be set up manually, which means you need to know the stmp and pop3 server address’, these can be easy found out from your ISP though. The program acts just like any other, with the exception that it is running within the browser.
Bookmarks:
The browser comes with a number of default Bookmarks, which are mainly American orientated. They are categorised, and provide useful links, to normally very good sites. There are ones for even HTML scripting (which I found very useful in creating my web site. They cover all sorts of subjects, and are easy to change if you feel unhappy about some of the ones in the listings.
Hotlist:
This is shown automatically when you first start up the browser. It’s basically a shortcut bar made up from the bookmarks. It also provides you with the ability to check your email, and also shows your contacts list. I personally don’t use the hotlist, but I know it could be very useful to people who use the internet very regularly and need this information close to hand. I don’t, so it isn’t all that useful.
Messaging:
There is also an inbuilt instant messenger, but unless you don’t have an instant messaging account elsewhere (like on yahoo or msn) this is really totally useless. It isn’t anywhere near as good as other messaging services, and doesn’t have the member database to cope. It is able to join up with other messaging services, but these need to be set up manually and are tricky to set up. So I would recommend buying separate software for it. Although it is a good idea to integrate them all into one program I think.
Well that’s most of the features in the browser that I have found, but there a couple of other things I’d like to comment on about the browser. The way you open multiple windows in Opera is the best I have seen. With IE and Netscape, they open as totally new programs on the taskbar (in Windows), which I find very annoying. In Opera, they open as windows in side the Opera program window. This means your taskbar doesn’t get cluttered with browser windows, and it is easy to change the page you are viewing. When viewing more than one web page, the windows show up as list at the top of the browser.
There is also a news section, which if you set up and account, you can get live news feeds (I think, because I haven’t set one up because it didn’t appeal to me). These may be useful to some people except for me, as I’m not a real news junkie.
Overall, if you are a newbie to the big world of the world wide web, then I would advise you choose a browser like Internet Explorer. For the more experienced amoung us, than Opera is perfect choice. It makes the odd mistake when reading the HTML script, but at the speed it does it, it’s easily forgiven. The one thing you need to know when using this browser is what everything does. When I changed to it, I had to show my family at home how to use, because they didn’t have a clue. I hope this helps you in your choice!
Tybalt!