Opera 10.0 Beta 1 GUI Evolution: Visual Tab Thumbnails

Last week I was telling you that Opera Software was on the brink of releasing the first Beta build of the next iteration of the Opera browser. At the end of May 2009, Opera was just about to evolve from Alpha stage to Beta, a move that happened today, June 3rd. At under a week since the availability of Build 1535, Opera Software made available for download Opera 10.0 Build 1551 Beta 1. While testers that have already been running the Alpha versions of Opera 10 are also bound to notice some changes, the evolution will be most consistent for those who will upgrade from version 9.6 to 10.0 Beta 1. But even testers that have been running Alpha versions of Opera 10.0 will notice the evolution of the graphical user interface, which now comes to the table with tab thumbnails, labeled Visual Tabs.

“Yes, we have added thumbnails on the tabs themselves to make it even easier to find that Web site you were looking for. These visual tabs are currently folded away by default, but can easily be enabled by dragging the drag handle available just beneath the tab bar. Double-clicking or middle-clicking the same drag handle will show/hide the tab thumbnails,” revealed a member of the Opera team.

Opera did offer live previews of the tabs opened on mouse-over events, but the new thumbnail functionality further streamlines user navigation. However, Visual Tabs are only making the first step into the browsing world. “Our goal has been to make something that is visually pleasing, yet remains useful for people that have a handful of tabs open and needs an easy and visual way to always know what site is on what tab. What you see in this first beta is a first step, and there will most likely be tweaks and changes made to the current solution to address issues and feedback from our users,” the Opera team representative added.

Starting with version 10.0, Opera now supports automatic updates for the browser, provides an inline spell checker, aces the Acid3 test, boosts performance for CSS and HTML rendering, and comes with Opera Mail HTML Compose support. In addition, the browser now gestures the Opera Turbo technology, designed to speed up the browser when dealing with slow Internet connections.

Changes to the user interface also extend to the Speed Dial. Opera has responded to feedback, and is now letting users configure more than nine websites. “We've also seen frequent requests to be able to have a customized Speed Dial background. Well, guess what? In the bottom right of the Speed Dial you now have a new Configure Speed Dial button that opens a brand new configuration dialog. With this new configuration dialog, you will be able to set a background picture that can be stretched, centered or tiled. It is also possible to set the number of sites that should be shown, ranging from 4 to 25,” the Opera team member added.

Opera 10 for Windows is available for download here.

Opera 10 for Linux is available for download here.

Opera 10 for Mac OS X is available for download here.