The Good Life... a weblog about life, technology, and the Opera web browser

I've been tagged! Rowan Mulder wants to know what five things I'd like to see in Opera. The tagging game began with Daniel Goldman (see his post for the rules) and I'm going to go ahead and tag Timothy Luoma, Rijk van Geijtenbeek, Eirik Stavem, Allan Clements, and Ian Hickson.

Picking out five things I'd like to see in Opera is actually a bit tricky for me. I spend a lot of time listening to what others want in Opera. Often when I talk about what I want in Opera, I'm just echoing what I've heard from others. After some thorough brainstorming, I hope I've filtered off the bias and will present a list that's truly my own. Since I have a unique perspective as an employee, I've bent the rules a bit and included some things that I think (and hope!) Opera Software as a company could do better in the future.

And without further ado, five things I'd like to see in Opera:

• A better icon - Really, Opera's icon isn't very good. There are a number of design problems with it and it really can't compare to its competitors.
• A publicly accessible bug tracking system - Opera's users are awesome. They tirelessly figure out problems on web sites and find ways to reproduce really odd issues. To get the most out of their expertise, it makes sense to make the Opera Software bug tracking system publicly accessible. Our users are one of our greatest assets and I know that'd be thrilled to help kill some bugs.
• Better changelogs - When an Opera user takes the time to report a bug, the least Opera Software can do is inform them it's been fixed by listing it in the build/release changelog. Changelogs typically include less than 10% of the actual changes, though many are included in blanket statements like "improved stability".
• Opera Mail as a separate application - Opera Mail gets no respect, even less than the Opera browser. Opera Mail in Kestrel is leaps and bounds better than Opera Mail ever has been and it's going to get even better in Peregrine. I already use Opera Mail as if it were a stand-alone application, but few users probably know how to do so. Thus, I'd like Opera Software to release Opera Mail as a standalone application so others will be able to experience its greatness!
• Developer tools - One of the best ways to get more users to use Opera is to fix web site problems. One of the best ways to fix web sites problems is to provide superior tools for developers. If developers developed their web sites using Opera, then fixed the problems they find in other browsers, Opera would work out of the box. I think one of the main reasons that Mozilla and Firefox caught on is because it was early-on the defacto geek/developer browser. Those geeks/developers made their web sites work in Firefox, then spread the word and now Firefox has 10+% market share, while Opera is still hovering in the single digits.
• Bonus: Extensions - Face it, the Opera browser can't please every user. Opera Software can try to find the right balance between features and clutter, but I think that's a losing battle. What's the answer? Extensions. Let users make, rate, and install the features they want. Let users take the Opera browser to places Opera Software never imagined. They already try to do so now with various skins, toolbar setups, and hacks. If Opera Software gave them the right tools, the possibilities are almost endless. Extensions will also open the door to features from third-parties, such as the Google Toolbar and applications like RoboForm. I really want to see how much better Opera could be if the Web could apply their talent to it.

Note: The opinions expressed here are my own and are not meant to represent my employer, Opera Software.

After IE 7 Beta 1 was released, Chris Wilson posted a list of rendering engine bugs that will be fixed in IE 7 Beta 2. Most of the bugs were described in detail at PositionIsEverything and QuirksMode, some with cute names like Peekaboo. Many of these are the bugs that really get in the way of doing decent site styling in IE.

As we're working on our next major rendering engine update, I wonder what are the rendering engine bugs that affect site designers when working with Opera. Please let us know by posting a comment here or posting in your own blog and sending a trackback here. We almost definitely won't be able to fix all of the reported problems, but at least we can take a crack at them. Please provide a clear description of the bug, the bug number in our BTS (if known), and a minimal test case, if possible.

Note that I am not asking for your pet bugs. I want to know which bugs cause problems on a day-to-day basis when working with Opera's rendering engine. Also, I'm not talking about missing features.

Well, it's that time again. Here are my favorite changes in Opera 8.0 Beta 3:

1. SVG 1.1 Tiny support. Need I say more?
2. All protocols can be redirected to other applications. IRC://, NNTP://, and news:// URLs can now be set to open with other applications. And, if you run a standalone Opera Mail installation, HTTP:// and HTTPS:// URLs can be redirected to your browser installation![1]
3. The "Title" setting in the [User Prefs] section of opera6.ini can now contain a "%t" variable, which will be the page title. In other words, you can set the order that information appears in the Title bar. If you want the Opera build number first, use something like "Title=Opera 8.0.%s - %t". If "%t" is left out, the title will show before the custom Title setting.
4. Save attachments dialog. At long last, you can save multiple attachments to messages quickly. There are still several rough spots in attachment handling, but things are definitely getting better.
5. The bug where "$" couldn't be used in search strings is fixed. I do a lot of message-id searches in Google Groups, which often triggered this bug. It's so nice to have one more annoyance gone.
6. Improved collapsed address bar. If a page opens a pop-up without an address bar, the pop-up will now have a small bar at the top that shows the hostname and security information (if any) for the page. I'm starting to wish that it worked on all pages, not just pop-ups. :)
7. Various prototype objects are now available to scripts. I really don't know what this means, but some of our testers were pretty excited about it. ;)
8. Better form styling. We fixed a couple of bugs with the way form elements are styled, so things are working better and are more consistent with other browsers.
9. Display notifiers immediately if special effects are turned off. If you're annoyed by the slow rising and falling of the notification dialogs, but still want to know when stuff is happening, you can disable skin special effects[2] and notifications show briefly, then vanish without all the scrolling.
10. New preferences dialog. The new dialog has better organization and will probably be less daunting for new users. Some stuff that should have stayed didn't, though.

[1] Admittedly, there's a slight problem with this: if you open a link from an e-mail, a blank page is still opened even if the link is sent to another application. So, it may not be a complete solution yet, but it's a large step in the right direction.

[2] Unfortunately, that setting is currently only available by messing with opera6.ini. Set "Special effects=0" in the [User Prefs] section of opera6.ini to try it out. Note that this setting affects some skin styles, too.

Now that Opera 8.0 Beta 2 is out, I can finally talk about my favorite changes. I'm very happy with this release, overall. We made excellent progress on bug fixes and solved some usability issues here and there. Anyway, here we go:

1. The Security information dialog. Now, when you click on the padlock in the address bar (or press Alt+Enter with focus on the document), you'll get a dialog with information about the level of security and certificates used on the site. The address bar now also shows the name of the certificate.
2. Typed URLs for redirects are remembered. If the URL you enter in the address bar or F2 dialog automatically redirects to another page, only the destination URL would show in the address bar and F2 history. Now, it shows both! This is a nice usability improvement, as Opera finally remembers the address I use to access my bank account.
3. EXIF data for JPEGs. In the image properties dialog, some simple EXIF data is now displayed, when available. Try it out!
4. Support for document.selection, document.getSelection, and friends. One of the most frequent DOM support requests has been for the document.selection family. Now, many forum and web logging software will work better with Opera. Hooray!

Oops, time to leave for the day. I'll see if I can fill out this list a bit on Monday so it can be a Top 10 list. Oh, and what are your favorite changes?

Periodically, I'll be posting Top 10 lists in my journal. Sometimes the list will be about problems, sometimes about ideas, sometimes about other stuff I haven't thought of yet. I'd like for others to post Top 10 lists about the same subject, so I can get a good idea how others feel. You can post in a comment, on a MyOpera journal, on a blog, in an appropriate forum, etc. But make sure you post a comment here telling me where you posted. ;)

Disclaimer: Any list is my personal opinion and does not necessarily reflect the focus of Opera Software.

I'm going to start with usability issues. Usability issues are things that make it hard to use Opera. They are usually not missing features, but can be in extreme cases. And they are not accessibility issues (a topic for another Top 10 list ;)) or Opera Mail issues.

So, here goes (in no particular order):

1. Link addresses in tooltips. They block useful information on web sites (specifically in CSS/DHTML menus). They are usually pointless if you have the Status bar enabled.
2. Intrusive notifiers (download completed, new mail received, popup blocked, etc.). There needs to be a way to configure what notifiers appear, how often, and for how long.
3. Cookie management. Cookie management is one of the most confusing and intrusive things in Opera. Set Opera to warn about cookies and you're assaulted by dialogs. And the dialogs don't make much sense, either.
4. System tray icon. There should be an option to toggle the display of the system tray icon independent of the Opera Mail toggle.
5. Customization via INI files. There needs to be an easier way to customize Opera (not just the UI, but settings, too) than via INI files. The INI files aren't well-documented, you have to shut down Opera in-between changes, and they're difficult for novice users.
6. Link-style panels. The new link-style panels (i.e. one-click triggers actions) create several problems when you want to manage the items in the panel, rather than open them. Selecting multiple items, moving items, and removing items can all be problematic. Windows Explorer has an interesting solution to this. In any case, this should be configurable on a per-panel basis.
7. Bookmark management. There are various problems with bookmark management, specifically when adding new bookmarks. It's very difficult to add a new bookmark to the root bookmark folder (you have to unselect all other folders) and the folder select widget is tiny.
8. Wand notification. The first time Wand pops up telling me that it can save a password for a site, I go into preferences and disable Wand. I don't want dialogs telling me such things. Give me a button or something.
9. Customizations lost between upgrades. If there have been changes in the UI, customizations have to be redone. I have to change keyboard shortcuts any time a keyboard action is changed because I like Ctrl+R to mean Reload from cache.
10. Importing settings. There's currently no method for importing settings from previous installations. There should be an easy, centralized method of importing preferences, bookmarks, cookies, Wand, etc.