One way that you know if you’ve come up with a great idea is if everybody decides to copy it. We see plenty of examples of that all around us on a daily basis. Just yesterday it was MySpaceTV that copied YouTube. Today, it’s Opera’s Speed Dial feature.
First, in case you’re unfamiliar, Opera Speed Dial makes it really easy to keep track of your favorite sites, and access them. The image below helps explain:
Back in April when Opera 9.2 was released with Speed Dial, it didn’t take long for a copy-cat version to come out. Just a few weeks later, a Firefox extension was created called “Speed Dial” (they could have at least tried to come up with a clever new name), and it tries to provide the basic functionality that Speed Dial offers in Opera.
A more recent “copy-cat” version actually comes from an Opera user who wanted a web-based version, so he took it upon himself to create a page with 12 slots where you can add your favorite sites. You can even customize the look by changing the color. I must admit, it’s kinda cool, but it’s still not the real thing.
There are more examples though, a search engine called Exalead out of the United Kingdom has also copied with eight different slots on their homepage for “shortcuts” as they’re calling it.
I guess it’s safe to say that Opera has come up with a really great idea, because we’re seeing it copied in multiple different ways. Daniel Goldman over at Opera Watch sums it up best when he says, “Opera’s Speed Dial is often imitated but never duplicated. To try the real thing, download Opera.”
I’ve only used Opera once, but didn’t like how you had to pay for it. What have they really got on Firefox? I mean you can really do anything with extensions. Does Opera even have that sort of capability?
Dude you would never have to pay for opera at all. i have never paid anything though tried to push it to be installed on ALL new or modified installs(ALL OS’S SUPPORTED). Let me know if y’all want to get together for this. crundell_112 (AT) yahoo.com
I do remember the days when you had to pay for Opera, however it is a free browser these days. Opera has a lot of what Firefox extensions offer, but they’re built right in. It also has widgets (kinda like Vista gadgets). You are right, there are no extensions for Opera though. They are also known for better performance (e.g., no memory leaks). Some people like the all-in-one package deal that Opera offers, while others prefer Firefox. It’s just a matter of preference.
Yeah, I remember back when Opera had the ad-version or the paid-version, but now their desktop browser is both ad-free and no cost. I would say that Opera has the best performance of all the browsers (both in page rendering and memory management) along with the best support for standards. If you’re keen on installing Firefox extensions you probably won’t like Opera very much, but if you’re looking for a stable and secure browser that comes with a big bang out-of-the-box I think that Opera is your browser.