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One of my obsessions

I was planning to write a blog on this from a very very long time. But somehow the narcissist in me kept on writing articles just about myself. Unlike me, this is something very useful and interesting. Yes, you guessed it right. I am talking about Opera – my favorite browser.

Before I start…
1) If you are one of the persons who are fed up of my excessive admiration towards Opera (without even bothering to know why I admire), this article is not for you!
2) If you are one of those persons who use Internet once in a fortnight just to check mails, this may not be so useful to you.
3) If you are one of those millions who still think that Internet Explorer is the only browser and don’t feel a need to change just because you can ‘browse’ with IE, this is definitely not for you (its like saying there is no difference between a 486 and a P4, because you can play Paratroopers on both ;))
4) When browsing with IE, if one of your windows hung and it killed all other IE windows, and you had felt completely hopeless and angry looking at that stupid blue icon “e”, this one’s for you!
5) If you are using any other browser other than IE(like Firefox), but having an open mind that there can be a browser having better features, this one’s for you!

Well, what can I say about this amazing browser? That it is the fastest browser on earth? That it has so many features that I have lost count? Its totally customizable? (With due respect to Erich Segal, this is not plagiarism. Its just a mere coincidence that he was as awed by Jennifer as I am by Opera!)

What do I like the most about Opera? Here’s the list. (and all these features in less than 5 MB)
1) Opera does not ask you to browse as ‘it wants you to’ – it gives you the freedom to customize ‘the way you want it’. You don’t want a button – remove it, you want to place a toolbar on the bottom instead of the top, you want to have a close button for every tab – yes, its possible!
2) Opera has a wand, which helps auto-filling forms.
3) Has an inbuilt RSS aggregator (though it is a relatively new feature and I am sure, will be enhanced in future versions)
4) Has mouse gestures to open, close, refresh page, open links etc.
5) You can include additional search engines, within a minute.
6) If you have 3 sites opened, and you want these to be opened at a later time, you can store this as a “session” and whenever you need, you can open that ‘session’ (Its an amazing feature, which I don’t think Firefox has)
7) Did you ever see something interesting in a site, which you wanted to copy for a later use and opened Notepad, copied it and wondering where to save that file? Forget it, Opera has “Notes”. Select something and do a Ctrl+Shift+C, and it copies to your note inside Opera (Yes, Firefox does not have this too)
8) Opera has a full fledged mail client facility (I have not tried this, but read that its good)
9) Did you ever feel that some sites have very small or very large fonts and you wanted that to be displayed in a size you like? You can use the zoom facility in opera.

There are tons of other features which I simply love, about which I thought of writing in detail, but came across this amazing link (I am an Opera user from more than 3 years and I felt I knew almost everything about it before going through this link. How wrong was I!).
Read it when you are free, you will know why I am an Opera fanatic.
30 Days to Becoming an Opera Lover

If you want to know why Opera is better than Firefox, read this
Comparing Opera and Firefox

Visit one more Opera lover Vijay here.

I don’t say that Opera is perfect (few sites don’t open in Opera, google talk chat from browser does not work etc.), but the benefits are so much that you will ignore those (for such rare scenarios, we have our pathetic IE anyways)

Long live Opera!

Comments

Vedu Joshi said…
Guru,
Its based on IE core...else you dont get such a browser for 3.4 MB

So, be nice to IE :)
Vedu Joshi said…
ok ok...i am wrong :)
Anonymous said…
Vasu, you've referred to a Aug 2003 article to say why Opera is better than Firefox when Firefox didn't even exist !!. And all the features you've said (saving sessions, copying text as notes etc) and more are present in firefox as plugins/extensions. There are close to 1000 of them...Take a look at them they are unbelievably innovative. The only drawback I see in firefox is it hogs memory..but these days with memory becoming so cheap I wouldn't worry about it...

- ASJ
Anonymous said…
Vasu,

Guru Here remember the school days!!, You have a wonderful art of writing ...I'm just amazed you could do all this...Yes Yes I never thought you could write so well ...
Oh yes, I would like you to invite me for a Writely Account..!!!

See no free Lunches or praises in this world!!


Take Care,
Guru

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