Sharing is Living

Well, for this first blog, I think I’m going to share about how much I love my internet browser, and that is, Opera.I knew about Opera relatively early, I think. I remember when they just developed it, they were charging $30 - $40 for a non-ad version. I did the free trial, liked it so much, I paid for whatever that amount was. Mind you, I was still in college, had a low paying campus job, and not much to spare. But I loved Opera, even back then.

Consider, I lived on campus, had a super fast connection, and IE, Netscape, Firefox were decent enough for a free product. In short, seemingly there was no reason for me to like Opera that much and to have paid for it. But in exception to a fleeting feeling of regret when I found out that Opera stopped charging for the browser, because they’re putting ads instead, I never regretted that purchase. They said one of the reason they charged for it was for further r&d (I believe). Well guess what though, I am actually pleased to be a part of the making of one of the best browser on earth. It’s not perfect by any means, but it almost is.

Here is a list why I think Opera is amazing.

-    Small size, only 10 mb or so
-    Fast browsing, ability to turn images and cached images off and on with a click of a button
-    Search toolbar with almost everything you want
-    Customizable search toolbar (my professor would say, this is the greatest thing since sliced bread!). Let me explain. -    -    Although Opera has major search engines built in, like Google, Yahoo!, eBay, Amazon, etc, I can add more to that list. The thing is, I know VERY little about programming language, but with little tweaking and learning (like 15 mins), I was able to add my searches in there. Now, for example, if I’m looking for BBC documentary videos on Google Video, and I want it to be longer than 20 mins, and I wanted 100 results in one page, all I have to do is type “gv bbc documentary”. And lo and behold, it worked like magic, all the relevant results were displayed in front of me. The first time it worked, I felt like I was discovering the internet for the first time! Right now, I have about 10 custom searches that make my life 10x worth living…
-    It has built in Torrent downloader
-    Built in email client ( I use my gmail through Opera)
-    Speed Dial! (Opera you’re a genius) it’s sort of like a bookmark, but better, faster. For example, when I type “1″ or press “ctrl + 1″ on my address bar, it’ll go to my Austen.com page. When I type 2, it’ll go to My Yahoo! page, etc.
-    Safest and most secure, yes I’m not kidding, of all browser, according to secunia.com.
-    Wand capabilities (password saver in one click). Great for me because I can’t keep up with all the logins and passwords.
-    Built in RSS reader.
-    Cool widgets. The to do list is quick and simple.
-    When you close a tab by mistake, you can reopen it in 2 clicks!
-    Saved session capability, so if you want your browser to open with several tabs that you visit regularly, it can do that.
-    Free with no ads, with regular updates/upgrades.
-    More but I haven’t really utilized. Like history searches, chat client, etc.

Wow, that’s a lot….Now, some of the things that I find lacking.

-    Some java pages won’t load.
-    Some streaming pages won’t load, like imeem.com.
-    Some sites still asks for use of IE or Firefox only.

Other than that, I really really love Opera (did I say that already?). If they would add their stock ticker to NYSE or Amex or whatnot, I’d definitely buy some and hold LONG term. To be honest, since I’ve been so besotted with Opera, I haven’t looked around at other browsers. IE I use rarely, Firefox I use only if using my brother’s computer, Safari and others I’ve never tried. Maybe, just maybe, others are better than trusty Opera? If so, I’d like to know.

www.opera.com
Till next time!