The New Opera Isn't for Tweakers and Power Users, Opera Says

With the new Opera 15, the browser maker didn't just create a new browser, it adopted a new philosophy as well. Opera has always catered to the power user, as one of the oldest browsers around, it offered things that early internet users, who liked or simply needed to mess with the insides of the browser, found useful.

But these days, everyone uses a browser and most people not only don't want too many options and settings, they're intimidated by them.

So with the new Chrome-based browser, Opera started from scratch, so to speak. While the browser uses the engine and most components and features in Chrome, Opera didn't want to include anything that wasn't needed.

"When we released our first browser in 1996, most web users were people who weren't afraid to tinker, and who liked lots of options and configurability," Opera explained.

"Fast-forward 17 years, and the Web is everywhere. Speedy browsing and sites working properly is the most important thing to many, many people," it added.

"That leaves us with the riddle that every software developer faces at some point: how best to make a UI simple enough to be intuitive for a consumer who wants a solid, fast browser that just works, and yet is customizable and extensible so that power users can add the features they want," it said.

This is why, out of the box, you get far fewer settings and options than even in Chrome. And this is why there isn't even a bookmark feature. Much like Google with Chrome, Opera had a chance for a fresh start and it took it.

Granted, it's not a completely new browser, like Chrome was five years ago, but it's still an opportunity to remove the things that weren't of much use to anyone but a vocal minority these days.

Opera doesn't plan to completely ignore that vocal minority, since power users are the only one still using Opera. But it plans to cater to their needs via extensions and add-ons, not built-in functionality. In fact, Opera has already started building several official extensions for the browser, like a PDF reader or a Bookmark Manager.