REVIEW: Opera 9

Its really weird when I find a browser to be better than Firefox.  Back in the day, before Firefox, I was using the Avant Browser.  And I really liked the Avant Browser.  But it ran off of the Internet Explorer engine.  Then when Firefox came out, I started using it, and I loved everything about it.  Now, here we are with Opera 9, and I must say, I’m very impressed with the outcome.  The browser has always been good, but, some sites just didn’t work very well, and I just didn’t use it like I did with Firefox.

New to the browser are widgets.  If you don’t know what widgets are by now, I’m sorry to hear that.  But, so
you’re up to date on what they’re all about, they’re just small little programs that can do all sorts of different things, from searching the internet, to providing a clock for your computer, or doing all sorts of other things.  The support that they’re getting for the widgets is pretty awesome, too…they’ve got a BitTorrent widget, a Google Toolbar Widget, and my favorite, a feed reader called “Raggerator.”  The widgets feature of Opera 9 appears to me like it could shape the future of web browsing.  The concept of having all sorts of different programs to enhance your browsing experience is something that sounds really cool to me.

As far as the speed of the browser goes, it seems to run pretty fast.  And the pages load quite well, as well.  The only page that I’ve had a problem with is my Myspace page–the browser didn’t want to load my background.  All in all though, the pages load pretty good, and its something that I’m rather impressed with.

Visually, the browser looks similar to the previous versions.  It has always been a favorite of mine as far as the default skin goes…the browser is simple, and looks really good.  If you’re not a big fan of the default skin, or if you’re the kind of person that likes to change things up a bit, you can, of course, download more skins from Opera’s website.  They’ve got some awesome skins there, and overall, the browser looks awesome.  You have all sorts of new customization options, as well.  Site preferences allow you to choose how you view any particular website.  It works rather well.

Overall, I’m very impressed with the way Opera 9 turned out.  Will it be a permanent replacement for Firefox on my computer?  Probably not.  I’m going to keep using both of them, and I’ll more than likely do a Firefox vs. Opera feature in the very near future.  With Firefox 2.0 in the works, and Internet Explorer 7 on its way as well, the future of web browsers is about to get even bigger and better.  I give Opera 9 a 8.5/10.