Opera claims over 100 million users, half are mobile

[Matthew DeCarlo]

Opera fanatics have grown to 100 million strong, according to a new press release. The company says around 50 million Windows, Mac, and Linux users rely on its desktop software, while another 50 million use the mobile version of Opera, and "many more" can be found on game consoles, connected TVs, and set-top boxes.

There's no denying that Opera is an underdog in the desktop segment, being dwarfed by Firefox, IE, Safari, and even Chrome to some degree -- but that's changing. According to Opera, the full PC version of its software has a growth rate of 30% year-over-year. Some of that is undoubtedly thanks to Microsoft's EU browser ballot, as well as the positive press surrounding Opera's latest builds.

In addition to offering the speediest browser on the market, the company says its users benefit from features like Opera Turbo, Opera Unite, Opera Link, and a unified, easy-to-use interface. Folks interested in test-driving the browser can download it here.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/38551-opera-claims-over-100-million-users-half-are-mobile.html

 

[Guest]

It's funny though; in real life tests, it has been shown that Opera is the slowest of all the major browsers. It is undeniably faster than ever, but sadly it is not faster than Chrome and even Firefox. Benchmarks don't mean anything if in real life things don't happen.

Lol, just try to run a 1080p video in YouTube while scrolling up and down, and you'll see. SMH.

 

[lmanlo]

Opera is my main browser and it is faster than chrome. When I open opera with 8 tabs it opens faster than Chrome with 5 tabs, I can start looking at my regular saved tabs faster in opera without having to wait for chrome to load my 5 tabs, opera already loaded the 8 tabs.
I have Opera, IE8, Chrome, Firefox, and Safari installed and Opera has been the best of all of them, firefox slow at startup instead of opera. IE8 & Chrome it's ok but still slower at opening, safari rarely use as I try not to use apple but have it for some things that I have to access while i have it open on another browser with different user.

 

[inflatabadge]

It's funny though; in real life tests, it has been shown that Opera is the slowest of all the major browsers. It is undeniably faster than ever, but sadly it is not faster than Chrome and even Firefox. Benchmarks don't mean anything if in real life things don't happen.

Really? The tests I have seen have consistently shown Opera as being the fastest on real-life tests. With 10.5 they also started winning all the artificial benchmarks.

Lol, just try to run a 1080p video in YouTube while scrolling up and down, and you'll see.

I can't really spot any problems there, but surely you are not claiming that Opera is slower in general based on one specific test?

 

[PanicX]

Does Opera have an AdBlock plugin/extention?

 

[matrix86]

My problem with Opera is their lack of support. There have been issues discussed on their forum that have gone on for a year with no reply.
The issue that's big to me is their voice control. It is very buggy (either it works or it doesn't) and despite advertising it, they never respond when someone has issues with it. It's as if they don't care. Why promote a feature that you don't even care about working the bugs out of? And despite as long as Vista has been out, Opera still stands by its statement that the voice functionality should only by used for Windows 2000 and XP.
Great business practice, Opera...ignore your users who are asking for help on a feature of your browser. At least take it off or tell us you're phasing it out. Don't leave us hanging for over a year.
As far as testing goes among browsers, it all really depends on your computer. I've benchmarked all my browsers with Peacekeeper, but in real world testing, hardly noticed any difference. But I have friends who can tell big differences. In the end, it's all about your hardware and your network speed.

 

[matrix86]

Does Opera have an AdBlock plugin/extention?

There is a content blocker built into Opera. Go to any page, right click on it, select "Block Content..." and then it lets you choose what on the page you want blocked. Then click "Done" at the top and from then on you will not see the ads or whatever else you blocked.

As you can see, there's more involved, but it does the same thing.

 

[cyriene]

PanicX said:
Does Opera have an AdBlock plugin/extention?

Of course. I place this urlfilter.ini list (http://www.fanboy.co.nz/adblock/) in the appropriate directory and all the ads are gone from all site. If you want to allow ads on a particular site, right click on the page "edit site preferences" go to content tab and uncheck 'Enable Content Blocking"
Much easier to block ads with Opera than with some extension on FF for me.

 

[Guest]

@inflatabadge

Well, the thing about YouTube is probably only in my slow laptop.

However, in real life tests Opera resulted slower. And also less stable in high demanding pages. Don't get me wrong though, Opera is up there, but it is undeniably slower (REAL-time perception) than browsers such as Firefox (which has become slower too). The reason it is perceptibly slow is mainly due to its rendering engine (Presto). Gecko is the oldest, fastest, most stable, and most compatible rendering engine. Maybe that's where Opera falls behind.

Also remember Opera is the fastest ONLY in Javascript. The rest is pretty much average.

When it comes to benchmarks, yes it is true, Opera is aeons (and I mean aeons) ahead of V8.

Sorry I have no sources. I saw the tests about a month ago. I just remember I saw it on LifeHacker.

 

[Guest]

I run Opera with average 15-20 tabs in my job and it's fairly fast and stable and we are talking about 1GB machine here. Try to do that in IE8.

In my experience, in real life testing, Opera is heads and shoulders above anything else on the market. The only thing that I can find against the browser is the odd rendering problem with some popular sites that refuse to support Opera due to shady reasons I can't really understand but one can't have it all.

 

[Guest]

I run Opera with average 15-20 tabs in my job and it's fairly fast and stable and we are talking about 1GB machine here. Try to do that in IE8.

That's what I like about Opera, what I don't like is that it's very difficult to find out a way to keep your bookmarks / passwords syncronized with other browsers. And that's what's keeping me from using it more. I love its slick design though.