04/14/07 Speed Dial
Version 9.20 of the Opera web browser has just come out and in addition to fixing some Flash and Javascript issues (no more going to Firefox for certain sites!) it includes a fantastic feature: Speed Dial. Whenever you open a new tab or window on Firefox you get a blank window. That’s normal. IE loads the same page you were viewing when you opened the new tab (wich I’ll refrain from commenting on for I don’t want this to become a rant - let’s just sat that if I wanted to read the page I had open I wouldn’t have opened a new tab…). But Opera 9.20 takes advantage of the empty space on a blank page and lets you put up to 9 bookmarks, all with a big screenshot of the site.
Genius. It’s an extremely simple idea but one of those that makes you wonder how come no one though of it before. Not only you have links to your most visited sites everytime you open a blank tab; on a true speed-dialish way, Command/Ctrl + 1-9 will open the speed dial bookmarks as well. And it’s when you add this to Opera’s mouse gestures feature that it becomes really brilliant. A mere flick of the mouse and I’m checking Twitter or my feed subscriptions on a new tab.
But you know what? Even if at first Speed Dial seemed like the best feature of 9.20, I think that the best feature is probably the small Javascript and Flash fixes. Unlike before (“You should try Opera!… but keep Firefox around for such and such site… “), now I can fully recomend Opera.
Here, give Opera a try. It’s free and it will run on pretty much anything you can get connected to the internet.
Technorati Tags: Opera, speed dial, firefox, IE, browser
6 Comments so far
You know you can set firefox so that it will open your homepage when you open a new tab, instead of a blank tab.
By ESC on 04.14.07 8:01 pm
Yes, but here I can practically set 9 homepages!
By Nico on 04.14.07 8:03 pm
Very nice feature. For sites you visit frequently, it’s certainly easier seeing the top 9 that way than say, going into your del.icio.us or your browser’s bookmarks and going individually to each one. Now if those thumbnails were updated in real time, you could look at each one before deciding to click, saving yourself yet more time!
By Lola on 04.18.07 1:20 am
Command/ctrl + R will refresh all 9 windows, or they can be refreshed one by one 8-)
(I’m not being paid by Opera, I swear! heh. I just love the product :) )
By Nico on 04.18.07 1:32 am
You know you can ALSO set firefox to open a series of Tabs by putting ” |” between the links:
http://www.zombiefud.com|http://www.roblundy.com|http://www.glpforum.com|http://www.idreamincolors.com
(heh, SHAME on my plugs, but its meaningful!)
By Rob Lundy on 04.18.07 4:33 pm
yay at the wrapping! your url got cut off… sorry
By Rob Lundy on 04.18.07 4:34 pm
Speak your mind