It’s no surprise that Opera 9.5 can synchronize your bookmarks with an online server, and can therefore give you access to them anywhere when running Opera 9.5! That is one of Opera 9.5’s most notable features, and the development team just stepped up their game by launching what’s called Opera Link.
With Opera Link you can access your bookmarks and Speed Dial entries from wherever you are via the link.opera.com site. Once logged in you should see an interface similar to that above, where you can add or remove bookmarks. You can’t move bookmarks between folders, or rearrange the folders for that matter, but that might be something they will work on in the future.
From the Opera Link site you can also view all of your Speed Dial entries, and it appears that they will eventually show small thumbnails of each. Right now I just get a “No screenshot available” message for each of my Speed Dial bookmarks.
And Opera didn’t stop there. They realize how popular their Opera Mini browser is becoming, and so they thought that it would be even more convenient if people could manage their bookmarks with that! Hence you can use Opera Mini 4 Beta to synchronize your bookmarks as well.
Jon von Tetzchner, Opera’s CEO, said:
We refuse to believe people should compromise their experience when they access the Web from different devices. With Opera Link, we give them a consistent experience uniquely suited to the way they want to use the Web. But as cool as we think Opera Link is now, we are already hard at work making it even more valuable to our users in the future. Opera Link means convergence without compromise.
I think the only thing that Opera Link is missing right now is direct support for the Nintendo Wii browser, and I’m not sure if they have plans to integrate it with that in the future. I’m just grateful for the multiple methods they’ve already implemented with Opera Link.
Instructions for setting up Opera Link on both Opera 9.5 Beta and Opera Mini 4 Beta can be found here.
Let’s hear it for Opera 9.5 Beta 1!!! Once again, the Opera team has an ace up their sleeve. What I expected to be nothing more than background bug fixes but on the contrary the team has actually delivered on two of my biggest Opera requests.
The first is really the talk of the release. I’ve been asking for this since the first public 9.5 alpha. It’s something I’ve wanted ever since I heard word of the coming Firefox “Places” feature (and in that browser I would still be waiting had I not switched). It’s what’s been branded, “Opera Link.” The point is bookmarks are automatically synced up to a server where they can be accessed from any browser via a website.
The second is something that I have yet to see mentioned. Something that may largely go unnoticed. Yet had I noticed this was not in the “Known Issues,” I likely would not have even bothered installing the update. This is Yahoo! Mail compatibility. So far all of the many Y!Mail features are working. This includes chat/IM, which has never before functioned in Opera. Everything is working quickly and properly, despite only a couple minor layout problems and occasional slowups. I’m surprised this isn’t being played up, especially since this is support for the biggest WebMail provider.
The Opera team really caught me off guard, and I’ll be switching back from IE7Pro (that was short lived). Congratulations Opera team!
Opera really hit the bookmark thing right on the head. What’s really smart is that they might have found a good way to convert Opera Mini users into Opera Desktop users as well.
I actually didn’t notice that Yahoo! Mail fix since I don’t use them, but I think that actually landed the other day when they released another snapshot build:
[my.opera.com]
I followed each snapshot’s issues list in hope of working Y!Mail, but on that one it still lists under known issues: “[BUG 286384] Yahoo mail is broken.” I guess maybe it’s a typo.
There could still be certain issues with it, or not up to their quality standards yet. Opera does have pretty high standards, so it might be a good thing that it is still on the list.
That would be good if it doesn’t quite meet their standards yet. It’s useable now, but there are still occasional slowups and visual issues (like text being selected while dragging a message to a folder).
netster007x, Yahoo Mail beta was definitely a big priority for us. The Yahoo team was kind enough to work with us on solving those issues.
Daniel
Opera Software