Opera has launched a completely new web browser branded as Opera Neon. This is concept browser which, Opera believes, is a need of time when everything changes around the internet which people explore on their favorite browser – so must change the web browser.
“A year ago, we set out to explore what web browsers might look like in years to come. Now, you can try Opera Neon – a concept browser that gives you a glimpse into the future of desktop browsers.” – states Opera.
First thing first – Opera Neon web browser is built on Chromium open source project and uses several other open source software. So expect very low rate of compatibility issues with any website out there which could run on any other latest web browsers.
Using the already existing and most up-to-date engine could actually let Opera work on the user experience which, they believed, had to change with the age what we are in right now. “Today’s web browsers are not as fresh as they used to be” says Opera while explaining that how today’s web browsers are nothing more than tributes to the time when web was mostly made up of documents and pages.
Opera tries to bring the whole new design and experience a browser should work today. Joanna Czajka, Product Manager at Opera explains in the following video “why the web needs a new browser”.
Well, yes! Opera has made it completely different than any other browser we have seen to date. it’s not like the most recent Edge browser, it’s not Safari or Chrome. It’s not like traditional Opera browser either. In fact with the first run, you hardly would identify it as web browser at all – with a few set of popular website links in bubble circles, and collapsed handle on the left side with a few shortcuts. And yes, an adapted background from your desktop.
When you launch Neon, it adapts your current desktop wallpaper as its background and overlays with a minimal set of triggers that you can interact with. Instead of the familiar favorite or frequent windows in the speed-dial of the browser, Neon offers you with the website icons in the big sized bubbles with a search bar over them. Tabs also work differently with the bubble icons stacked on the right side within the window providing you a little lower content viewport. It also features split-screen function that lets you put two tabs or websites side by side like the multi-window mode on Windows.
Neon also detects the media including videos or music on different tabs and provides you with a list of it in a dedicated Player panel. Additionally the videos can be popped-out of the web page and play as standalone player while you can continue browsing other stuff.
There are a few more features like “Snap-to-gallery” to crop, snap and save images from the on-screen webpage, “Visual-tabs” are something different than the old browser tabs, they give glimpse of the webpage visuals through the bubble tab. These tabs implements gravity system that pulls the most used tabs to a prominent position on your speed-dial. Check more features at Opera Neon website.
Where Opera Neon intends to give users a better experience visually but remains clean and straight to the point – browsing the internet. It’s a concept browser that Opera wanted to show how a web browser could be more user friendly than it is now. It also lacks support for the features like Chrome and Firefox extensions. Last but not the least, it’s not going to replace Opera’s existing browser and will receive updates and fixes in future.
Neon is the first big browser face shift from Opera after its acquisition by consortium of Chinese companies last year when most of the shares were owned by the software company Qihoo 360. Opera, with its browser, performance and privacy apps and licensing, was sold for $600 million.
While the Neon browser is supposed to be updated in future, Opera has stated that a some of its features may be added to Opera browser soon.
