With an increase of heat in browser wars, everyone in the market is trying to outpace the other by adding new features in every release. With two giants already in this cut-throat competition, Opera browser has preserved its place firmly among its tiny share of user base (0.71% in 2009 Q1 according to Wikipedia).
So, what makes its users stick to it by the way? The features it offers of course. Here is a list of 10 such unique features of Opera that you may not find in other browsers all at once. Of course, some browsers like Firefox have plugins for most of them, but again adding plugins to Firefox slows it down.
10 Unique Features of Opera Browser
- Speed Dial: The most innovative of all, this feature creates thumbnails of your favorite sites. Clicking on that thumbnail takes you directly to that site.
- Feed preview: From Opera 9.63, you can view the feed content before subscribing to that feed.
- IRC client: Enjoy IRC right from your browser itself. You don’t need any dedicated client to enjoy IRC.
- Opera Mail: Opera has a built in Mail client too. Again, no need to install any dedicated mail client.
- Notes: Find something interesting on web and want to jot it down immediately? Notes are at your service.
- Web Page preview: A great feature to resemble Windows Vista’s Live Thumbnail preview. Hover your mouse cursor over a browser tab and a small thumbnail of the webpage is displayed.
- Torrent client: From Opera 5, it is shipped with a built in torrent downloading client. This shipment is the result of agreement between Opera Software and BitTorrent way back in 2001.
- Trash can: This simple feature can save you a precious time on web as it can open closed tabs. If you’ve mistakenly closed an important tab, just head on to Trash can and restore your tab back.
- Scroll marker: Starting from Opera 9.63, this feature marks at the end of the webpage window, so you can continue reading from that mark while scrolling.
- Mouse gestures: As the name suggests, this feature performs mundane tasks by movement of your mouse.
Am I missing any worthy feature in this list? Point me there by your valuable comments below.
19 Comments
Synchronaisation – Synchronaise Bookmarks, Speed dial with Opera profile.
Nice try but Firefox has all features in form of addons there are more than 5000 of them so Firefox still rules.
@Alok
One thing I can vote in favor of Opera is speed.
With all above features Opera is much faster compared to Firefox with its addons installed.
@Krish.
Thanks for your comment.
@Alok.
I’m also agree with you buddy.
Another very cool feature is “widgets”. Though, not as gr8 as FF but surely Opera is something which can’t be ignored or under-estimated.
I love Opera@USB a wonderful portable browser from Opera, and it is better than portable Firefox. 🙂 give it a try!
@alok
1. All these features are inbuilt in Opera.
2. I don’t think that u have synchronization addon on firefox
3. In memory management also Opera is best i think, check the memory usage after a minimize (compare Opera and firefox)
4. opera is very much customizable (Firefox is not)
5. Firefox still have security holes which are not closed yet
6.Full screen browsing
7. resume download option
8. Option keep Notes
9. Advertisement Blocking
10. developer tool (Dragon Fly)
in my experience Opera Rules 🙂
@krish
>firefox does have synchronisation add-on : try using xmarks which is a cross browser synchronisation service and in that a much better option than opera synchronisation that locks you in opera.
> firefox is much more customisable than opera 😀
opera’s limited number of themes are no match against the huge collection of themes and add-ons like personna that are available for firefox
> firebug is the industry standard developer tool and is much more convenient that the web based opera dragonfly ; you even have add-ons to elevate the capabilities of firebug.
> resume download option doesn’t make a cut either … try using download them all add-on for firefox.
> add-block plus is a fascinating ad blocking add-on for firefox
> firefox has rather elegant note taking and notes organisation system in the add-on trail-mix
> yes , all these features are not in-built into firefox … but i see this as a feature … Is it not logically consistent to have a basic core software and add additional features to it in case you need them . what is the point in having a powerful software half of whose features are of no use to you ?
One more thing to add to Opera’s crown.
You can use Ctrz-Z to reopen a mistakenly closed tab. This feature is not available in FF, IE nor Chrome.
@Syed
You can use CTRL+SHIFT+T to open mistakenly closed tab in Firefox.
CTRL+T = Open new tab
CTRL+SHIFT+T = Open most recently closed tab
I have honestly tried to use Firefox several times. I even tried to find ways to tweak it’s speed, but it is just dismally slower than Opera. Glad it works for you though Rahul. BTW …I find it hard to get excited about having to install a bunch of add-ons to Firefox to make it perform all the extra functions that Opera already comes with, especially when Firefox is slower than Opera before those add-ons are installed.
on FF you cant remove that close button on a tab
We can do this by editing values on about:config.
Opera
you can create search easier, for example g keyword will search the keyword in google , you can create searches and assign letter for them, which will help you to find this faster.
Cool post rishi, Cograts you have done a great job.. keep it up 🙂
@All.
Thanks for all your feedback. 🙂
Nice Info, i dint know opera has a mail client.
Careful about this mail clinet. It will import all your mail. then it will make them disappear from your Gmail. This is an issue in the Opera forum that has not been resloved by Opera staff. Use this feature with caution
best regards, Misha
@Misha
I guess deletion of original mails depends on your Gmail settings in case you are using POP.
Also if you are using IMAP you can configure your email client not to delete any emails on server.
I use opera on PC and my sony ericsson w200i mobile device with sync feature.Its better for never loss bookmark both PC and mobile.