Sighted at 11

So, today the first beta version of the Opera browser of the new family was released - at number 11. The number did not grow by chance, but because of fairly thorough changes in the browser, many of which, by the way, appeared in response to persistent requests from users. In part, many of the innovations have already been discussed in Runet, in this article I will try to collect all the most important information regarding the new features of Opera 11. Something, however, will be a pleasant surprise. So, let's begin.

Extensions
Yes, as they say, "we built, built, and finally - built." Extensions were probably the most popular request from users. Naturally, we could not leave this unattended and still set about creating an extension system. There were no special surprises in terms of choosing a technological base for extensions: as for all major Opera add-ons (widgets, Unite applications), the “three pillars” of the Internet were chosen: HTML, CSS and JavaScript. In turn, this suggests that now there are a lot of possibilities for constructing all kinds of combinations, including extensions, widgets, Unite applications and the browser itself. All this abundance of ideas and non-standard solutions is waiting for us, I hope, ahead, but for now you can get acquainted with the extensions already presented by both our developers and enthusiasts from among Opera users (Opera extension repository ).



At the moment, more than 130 extensions are available and even more are under consideration. The installation process is quite simple and consists in finding a suitable option and clicking the “Install” button. The result may be different: some extensions clearly express themselves and are placed in the form of buttons in the browser interface, and some prefer not to advertise themselves and work in the background, appearing only at the moment when they are really needed.



Of course, all this pleasure is still far from perfect, but is in a stage of constant change / improvement.

Visual mouse gestures
This feature also hung in the top of the list of user queries for a very long time, and finally - it appeared to the world in all its glory. Honestly, I was cautiously waiting for what we get as a result. But he was afraid, as it turned out, in vain: the option even in the beta version turned out to be quite functional and even looks pretty well debugged, which happens infrequently with new functions. Moreover, the visual indication of mouse gestures turned out to be equipped with "intelligence", which allows changing the function of the function without additional settings depending on how the user gains experience.



The principle of work is this. As soon as the user makes a small mouse movement with the right button pressed and brakes slightly in an attempt to recall how the mouse gesture that is needed now is performed, a special tooltip appears that will clearly show all the actions available after the initial movement. Thus, the user will be able to gradually learn and remember constantly used movements. In the future, with a slightly faster execution of one or another gesture, only a kind of notification will appear, which gesture was performed at the moment, and as soon as the user starts to perform gestures with confidence enough - no prompts will be displayed at all. Conveniently? Of course. Who does not have this - envy. And by the way,

Address bar
No, the line itself is in place, but only at first glance it is clear that something is wrong with it. In the sense - not like usual. Firstly, a rather massive indicator appeared, displaying, depending on the situation, either the location of the open resource (network or local disk), or information about the page’s security, if any (in the sense of security) is available. By clicking on this indicator, we gain access to more detailed information about security, as well as access to certificates and the tool for reporting dangerous or suspicious web pages. In general - quite functional, compact, stylish. I like. It’s funny, but just a couple of days before this feature appeared in one of the weekly test builds, a request appeared in the official Russian-language forum to add something similar to the browser, and here you are.



Another noticeable change is the display of URLs. Firstly, in some places he "shed", and secondly - he is clearly hiding something from us! It hides the site icon, it hides the protocol pointer (http, https, ftp), and it hides from us the "tails" of intricate links. This is done for the convenience of user self-determination in terms of where he is and what kind of website it is. Convenience, of course, is controversial - say those users who are used to doing various manipulations with addresses or just looking at everything, including the “tails”. Such users have two ways - either use a click in the address field (then the address will appear in all its glory), or disable the function of hiding part of the address by changing the Hide URL Parameter option all in the same opera: config. By the way, URL mapping changes are one of the few features which users didn’t particularly ask. But we ourselves guessed that it would be better, and did. Well, we hope that is better.



Mail panel
Here everything is like in the song from "Connoisseurs" - "and at first glance it is as if not visible." In the sense - the work done. But in fact, the mail panel is one of the most actively developing internal subprojects of the company. It is enough to create at least one account or subscribe to receive RSS feeds, and all the hidden beauty will be in sight. Here and almost unhindered shuffling of the panel blocks by dragging and dropping, and individual settings for each block, and smooth animation, and even folders for RSS feeds. In general - just use it and enjoy it. In fact, there is still a wagon and a small trolley here, so we are really looking forward to feedback, suggestions and comments regarding the further improvement of this useful and, I am not afraid of this word, function that has been long requested by users.



Tab Grouping
I left this function for dessert. Firstly, it was a secret until the last moment, and secondly, the grouping of tabs is probably the most raw function so far. Although something can already be shown. It’s not even possible, but necessary, because without a hint, it is unlikely that many will be able to independently detect this function in the browser. Laughter laughter, but even knowing about its presence in the browser I could not use it until I read the upcoming press release. In general, the instruction is very simple. We take the tab, drag it supposedly to another place on the tab bar, but noticing how the tab that appeared under it somehow faded - release the mouse button. All. We have created a group of tabs.



The feelings are twofold: on the one hand, there is clearly not enough information about how to use it, and on the other hand, the mechanism is so simple and banal that somehow I don’t even want to clutter it with some kind of pop-up tips like “Group me!” , context menus, or scary warning posters. In general, there is something to think about, but for now we will see how it works and what we can benefit from for our convenience.



That's probably all for today. Of course, I didn’t mention much (but how - we have become even faster;)), about the same search tips for Google or more hidden changes - a lot of things. I will leave room for inquisitive researchers of changelogs and undocumented features of the browser. Speaking generally, based on my own subjective feelings, I personally personally like what changes are happening in the browser. I don’t argue, there are mistakes and shortcomings - unfortunately, nobody will ever be able to get rid of them, but in terms of the concept of development, as well as future changes (of which I, of course, have a slightly broader view than the readers of Habr) , everything looks pretty good. And note that absolutely everything (except, perhaps, some changes in the address bar), which I talked about today, implemented at the request of users - at your request. It would be very nice to keep this practice in the future.

You can download Opera 11 beta at the previous address - www.opera.com/browser/next Changelog

- www.opera.com/docs/changelogs/windows/1100b