8 Browser Innovations Started by Opera


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1) Speed Dial: First introduced by opera in 2007, copied by Chrome since the beginning, added to Safari 4 since beta and can be added to Firefox in the form of an extension.

2) Tabbed Browsing: There are some disagreements about who introduced tabbed browsing. The first version of Opera in 1994 (named MultiTorg Opera) introduced MDI tab where each tabs could be resized, tiled, cascaded and moved. But Netcaptor in 1997 was the first browser that offered the current form of simple fixed tabs that we are used in browsers (but at the bottom). Tabs on top of the browser (unlike Netcaptor) was also introduced by Opera in 2000.

[ Tabs in general applications was first introduced by IBM and adobe holds some sort of patent for tab functions, but thats a different story ]

3) Sessions: The ability to save browser session was introduced with Opera 2 in 1996. If you close your opera browser or it crashed you can go back to your last auto saved session including history of that session. This feature has been since copied in one form or another by other browser but none of them are as extensive as Opera session, where you can save a whole session of browser history in to text file and transfer in to a different computer and resume from there.

4) Pop-up Blocking: Imagine a web experience without pop-up blocker. What we take for granted today was first introduced by Opera 5 in 2000. Firefox picked it up soon and IE joined in the party in 2004.

5) Full page Zoom: A better alternative to larger text, zooming increases the size of the page without distorting the layout by only increasing the text size. Introduced by opera in 1996, and now all major browsers have this feature.

6) BitTorrent: Opera was the first to have torrent support built-in to the browser since 2006. It uses its download manager to download a torrent file like a regular download.

7) Delete Private Data: The ability to remove personal information from your browser was first introduced by Opera in 2000. We had to manually delete personal info BO (before Opera).

8) Mouse gestures: Using mouse gestures to perform repetitive tasks like scrolling tabs, closing tabs, back and forward button using gestures was meant as an alternative to keyboard shortcuts for maximum productivity. This feature was introduced by opera in 2001 and now Firefox supports this functions with the help of an extension.

Conclusion: This is not a complete list and Opera was not the only browser that had unique ideas and innovations that changed the way people use browser. But no other browsers had so many innovative ideas that has been copied with great success by almost every other browsers. Yet, Opera’s market share is still around 2% while other browsers are benefitting from its ideas

http://www.geektechnica.com/2009/06/8-brow...arted-by-opera/

wish Opera had marketed their browser well.

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I wish the UI didn't remind me of a hunk of ish.

Heh yea, I don't think jon hicks is gonna help "that" much in terms of the updated ui thats coming.

Its just the way opera works out of the box that sucks.

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they have no market share because they have a terrible browser. that's why they want the EU to force Microsoft to bundle it with windows ;)

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MITS introduced the personal computer. Xerox invented the GUI. Opera brought eight innovations to the browser.

Once again, the inventors are rarely the ones who prosper. It's the exploiters of the invention.

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Doesn't matter how much it has to offer if the UI sucks people will refuse it. This is a lesson to be learned by firefox, or they fit or they will loose to chrome.

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they have no market share because they have a terrible browser. that's why they want the EU to force Microsoft to bundle it with windows ;)

Terrible browser? Far from, but there's definitely room for improvement especially the UI side of things.

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i did not know that opera existed in '94. But i am glad that good features make it to other browsers as well. After all it's only more beneficial for us.

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I prefer Opera UI over Firefox UI, in fact I prefer Oprea more than firefox.

However I don't practice what I preach.....IE8 and Firefox currently installed :rolleyes:

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MITS introduced the personal computer. Xerox invented the GUI. Opera brought eight innovations to the browser.

Once again, the inventors are rarely the ones who prosper. It's the exploiters of the invention.

That's true. It sucks for those who do innovate and then get tossed aside, but that's the way life is. I use to be a huge Opera fan and even purchased it. Over time they just got lost me as different browsers appealed to me more.

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Windows Native Skin on opera isn't really different than most other apps. i dont see whats wrong with Opera UI. If anything, Opera is kinda like Foobar of browsers

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Well, if their browser didn't function overall like a piece of crap, maybe people would use it.

Also, so what if people developed a similar feature of Opera in Firefox? Honestly, that says to me, "Hey, your features were good, but not good enough to use Opera so... yoink!"

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Yeah I was first an opera user it had a lot of features which just made sense my personal favorite was "Paste and Go". However firefox customizability is just a killer feature. Opera UI doesn't help either.

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One reason why Firefox is better

1. Anything you can do I can do better; I can do anything better than you.

:D

hahaha

Opera may have started them, but apparently they can not run good as a company because they are trailing behind the other browsers.

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hahaha

Opera may have started them, but apparently they can not run good as a company because they are trailing behind the other browsers.

Trailing behind other browsers how?

Opera is great, has so many features in a small little package. I think it would be more recognized had they not had a pay version back in the day. If they only had the free version (w/o ads and what not) then it might have a higher market share today

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opera has lost any and all credibility they had because of this whole EU thing... everyone i know including me is blacklisting them.

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opera has lost any and all credibility they had because of this whole EU thing... everyone i know including me is blacklisting them.

+1

It seems like they're doing this out of desperation, going to cry to the EU(where they know this would work out, like a kid crying to his parents) literally forcing people to look at their existance and saying HEY! I'M HERE! I'M AN ALTERNATIVE CHOICE! PLEASE DOWNLOAD ME!

PATHETIC :hmmm:

Edited by Pharos
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Trailing behind other browsers how?

Opera is great, has so many features in a small little package. I think it would be more recognized had they not had a pay version back in the day. If they only had the free version (w/o ads and what not) then it might have a higher market share today

Trailing by market share...the number of people who use it...plus, you dont hear much about it as you do the other browsers.

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Opera is great, has so many features in a small little package.

That was one of the problems with Opera. It was filled to the brim with random confusing crap. It was just awkward to use, especially for people that just wanted to click a single button and browse.

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Trailing by market share...the number of people who use it...plus, you dont hear much about it as you do the other browsers.
so just because it doesn't have as strong of a market share like firefox or ie make it a worse browser? So does this make linux and os x a terrible os because they both trail windows in market share?
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Yeah I was first an opera user it had a lot of features which just made sense my personal favorite was "Paste and Go". However firefox customizability is just a killer feature. Opera UI doesn't help either.

That's where Firefox shines. Firefox can take any form, do anything really.

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That's where Firefox shines. Firefox can take any form, do anything really.

Yeah, Firefox is amazing. I've tried many different browsers, but always go back to Firefox. The customization is just amazing. The user experience in general far outshines any of the other browsers (Because YOU can choose what that user experience is like).

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