June 20, 2006 8:38 AM PDT
Curtain rises on Opera 9
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Opera fine-tuned and released
A security bar has also been added to Opera 9, a response to the prevalence of phishing scams and identity theft. The security bar aims to reduce users' encounters with phishing scams and also includes technology to strengthen blocking of pop-up advertisements.
Opera 9 also offers a thumbnail feature, which enables users to mouse over an open tab to see a thumbnail preview of the page
Opera 9, which is offered as a free download, runs on a variety of platforms, from Windows to Mac to Linux. It also supports BitTorrent's file distribution technology.
"For Opera 9, we worked hard to push the limits of what people expect from a Web browser," Jon von Tetzchner, Opera Software chief executive, said in a statement.
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He downplays and practically knocks the whole bittorrent feature just because there aren't many legal downloads available for it yet. How can you knock a browser feature based on what particular people might download with it? I use it for videocasts all the time. Opera is miles ahead of the competition by including support for this ever growing technology.
He also mentions that you can't get a list of previous sites via your back button, but this is merely because he's trying to use Firefox commands to do it. You have to hold the mouse button on the back button to get the list of previous sites. It isn't lacking the feature, he was just doing it wrong.
He also said the Rewind button was the "double-back" button, and apparently has no concept of how the buttons work. If you go to a site which is coded with "next" and "prev" link rels, using the rewind and fast-forward button will actually navigate the site for you. On Google, for example, if you press the forward button, you go to the next page of the results automatically. On certain forum software, you can go from topic to topic this way without going back to the index. You can get even more navigational aids which work in this way with the Navigation Toolbar.
Overall, I think his review of the browser was shoddy at best, giving people who expect a review to be honest and fair a lesser opinion of the product. And unfortunately, it means most folks will continue to use the buggy and vulnerability-prone Firefox.
He downplays and practically knocks the whole bittorrent feature just because there aren't many legal downloads available for it yet. How can you knock a browser feature based on what particular people might download with it? I use it for videocasts all the time. Opera is miles ahead of the competition by including support for this ever growing technology.
He also mentions that you can't get a list of previous sites via your back button, but this is merely because he's trying to use Firefox commands to do it. You have to hold the mouse button on the back button to get the list of previous sites. It isn't lacking the feature, he was just doing it wrong.
He also said the Rewind button was the "double-back" button, and apparently has no concept of how the buttons work. If you go to a site which is coded with "next" and "prev" link rels, using the rewind and fast-forward button will actually navigate the site for you. On Google, for example, if you press the forward button, you go to the next page of the results automatically. On certain forum software, you can go from topic to topic this way without going back to the index. You can get even more navigational aids which work in this way with the Navigation Toolbar.
Overall, I think his review of the browser was shoddy at best, giving people who expect a review to be honest and fair a lesser opinion of the product. And unfortunately, it means most folks will continue to use the buggy and vulnerability-prone Firefox.