How to Enable Google Instant in Opera

Google Instant is probably the biggest revamp to the search engine and to search in general since Google first launched. Unfortunately, the new UI only works for a few browsers, Firefox, Chrome and IE8, for now.

Well, actually, it may very well work for others, but Google has only enabled it for the ones listed above. This may be a precautionary move, the feature may not have been tested extensively enough on other browsers for Google to safely enable it.

If you're using Opera, for example, you will not get Google Instant by default. But there is a very simple way of tricking Google into enabling Instant searches, you can change the browser ID for Google.com to identify Opera as Firefox. After this Google Instant works in Opera just like in supported browsers.

"Google Instant is a new search enhancement that shows results as you type. Unfortunately, this feature requires Chrome v5/6, Firefox v3, Safari v5 for Mac or Internet Explorer v8," Opera's Espen André Øverdahl writes.

"So, if you've been hearing a lot about this and run Opera (like most of us here), you most likely haven't seen the Google magic in effect! Anyway, Bruce Lawson made a video to make Google Doodles work in Opera, but it works for Google Instant too," he explained.

The video shows all the steps, but here's a rundown of what you need to do to get Google Instant in Opera.

1. Visit Google.com, or any of the localized versions which has Google Instant enabled. You'll notice that you're seeing the plain old Google.

2. Right-click anywhere on the page and go to Edit Site Preferences.

3. Go to the Network tab.

4. From the Browser Identification drop-down box, choose "Identify as Firefox."

5. Reload the page and you should be seeing the revamped Google.

Google has said that it will enable it for other browsers and platforms at some point, so it should work natively in Opera at some point. For now, you can just use the trick above.