Chode Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 Recently I Posted regarding Opera's plans for a new feature, promising that "You have not seen it in a desktop browser before..." With Weekly Build 8732, that feature has been revealed as "Speed Dial". Opera's Johan Borg writes on the official Opera Desktop team blog: Opera Mini already adds Speed Dial shortcuts to the first 9 links on the start page, so you can just press *1 to get to your favorite site on your phone. Now we do the same thing for desktop, where Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9 gives you direct access to your 9 favorites. When you open a new tab, the 9 Speed Dial sites will be displayed with pretty thumbnails, a single mouse click away.Why Speed Dial? Bookmarks often fall into two categories: 1) A bunch of sites you bookmark because you may want to visit them again someday 2) 5 or 6 sites you visit very often Speed Dial is an elegant way to address the second category. When you open a new tab, it will often be to go to one of your favorite sites, so why not just show them there instead of an entirely blank page? Adding your favorites to Speed Dial is also very, very simple: Just click the button and choose a site from your Top 10 history or from the currently open tabs. Deleting them is just as simple, with the X in the upper right corner. A screenshot of my current usage of "Speed Dial": It should be noted, however, that this is a weekly build for beta testing. There are several outstanding known issues, and functionality may change dramatically as development approaches a public build. Interesting new feature, and it's certainly something that I've never seen before in another browser :) Sources >Desktop Team Blog Post >Opera 8732, Windows MSI >Opera 8732, Windows Classic >Opera 8732, Macintosh >Opera 8732. Unix Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Danrarbc Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 The thumbnails look a lot like the bookmarks portion of the Wii version of Opera actually, good choice I like the look. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360156 Share on other sites More sharing options...
red. Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 Yeah i've been playing around with it for a couple of hours. it's ok. it speeds up the process of opening my bookmarks menu, selecting my favourite and closing the menu again (i don't like placing bookmarks anywhere and don't like personal bars). can't do the Ctrl + number thing that the blog says though. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360164 Share on other sites More sharing options...
osirisX Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 I really like that idea. Although you could just write your own HTML page with little screenshots and set that as the page that opens when you open a new tab. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360174 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jexel Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 I really like that idea. Although you could just write your own HTML page with little screenshots and set that as the page that opens when you open a new tab. But it's about making our lives easier not harder :p Did anybody else apart from me think of RTS when they read "where Ctrl+1 to Ctrl+9..." Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360230 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Floyd Veteran Posted March 1, 2007 Veteran Share Posted March 1, 2007 thanks for the explanation Chode, I had no idea what it was. To answer your question Chode, I am able to do ctrl+number to open the correct page By the way, is it possible to open Opera with this page as startup page? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360245 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shasoosh Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 opera, the best you can find. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360831 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fourjays Veteran Posted March 1, 2007 Veteran Share Posted March 1, 2007 I'll wait til I try it before making final judgement, but from what I've read and can see in the screenshots, this isn't really as amazing as was being made-out. It's not much different from a bookmarks toolbar, or even the bookmarks file menu for that matter. I don't think it would offer much in "speed of use" either (still 1-2 to get to where you want), unless you use keyboard shortcuts all the time. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360850 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Napalm Frog Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 thanks for the explanation Chode, I had no idea what it was.To answer your question Chode, I am able to do ctrl+number to open the correct page By the way, is it possible to open Opera with this page as startup page? In the preferences, tell Opera to "Start with a blank page". Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360868 Share on other sites More sharing options...
what Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 opera, the best you can find. It won't be long before people make addons so other browsers can have this feature. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360869 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sethos Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 I really wanna use Opera, but when i have a Tab open that isn't done loading and i select another page ... It actually waits til' the last page is loaded and sometimes it even halts the loading! So I'm just stuck, i need to close the tab and open a new one. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360882 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shasoosh Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 It won't be long before people make addons so other browsers can have this feature. I'm not talking about this simple feature apparently it does take long to make browsers fast as opera btw, found something annoying about it, when you open a new link (middle mouse button) until the page loads the tab name is speed dial. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588360952 Share on other sites More sharing options...
psyko_x Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 I'm not talking about this simple featureapparently it does take long to make browsers fast as opera btw, found something annoying about it, when you open a new link (middle mouse button) until the page loads the tab name is speed dial. yea that's listed on their notes as a known bug though Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588361061 Share on other sites More sharing options...
b mitchell Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 It won't be long before people make addons so other browsers can have this feature. yep, that and it renders pages differently, making ti an afterthought by most web developers. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588361147 Share on other sites More sharing options...
ViperSnake Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 Neat idea, that may be useful! p.s. 4chan?!?!?! shoop da woop Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588361157 Share on other sites More sharing options...
+M2Ys4U Subscriber¹ Posted March 1, 2007 Subscriber¹ Share Posted March 1, 2007 Actually, that's a pretty neat idea. Hope Firefox gets <an extension | a feature> like this Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588361167 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pink Floyd Veteran Posted March 1, 2007 Veteran Share Posted March 1, 2007 In the preferences, tell Opera to "Start with a blank page".there is no start with a blank pagehow do you do that? Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588361265 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shibby Posted March 1, 2007 Share Posted March 1, 2007 there is no start with a blank pagehow do you do that? I'm running 9.01 Go to Tools > Preferences > General Tab it will be in the drop down box next to the label Start Up. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588361312 Share on other sites More sharing options...
MiamiGuy Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 The favorites thumbnails looks just like the thumbnails show in the Nintendo Wii Opera browser. Pretty cool to see it now for the desktop Opera browser. :) Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588362082 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nightwind Hawk Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Kinda reminds me of the voice recognition in Vista.. although this has nothing to do with voice, when you say "mouse grid" you can select different things with numbers :p Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588362129 Share on other sites More sharing options...
morca007 Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Seems like a pretty awesome feature to me! I'm using the weekly, and it seems to have a higher than normal RAM usage though... Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588362140 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Harlem39s Finest Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 IMO 'bookmarks toolbar' is as good if not better... Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588362152 Share on other sites More sharing options...
morca007 Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 Good god, the live reloading of the thumbnails everytime is annoying. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588362157 Share on other sites More sharing options...
phot0nic Posted March 2, 2007 Share Posted March 2, 2007 I'm not impressed at all. I thought they had something neat up their sleeves. For me (in Firefox, but any tabbed browser can do it), I just middle-click on a site name on my bookmarks toolbar. Same thing, less clicks. I've always liked Firefox more than Opera, but I've always felt that Opera makes a nice solid package (for those who like that), and they usually include some neat features. This though, well, it's just useless to me. Maybe someone will find it useful. Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588362170 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chode Posted March 2, 2007 Author Share Posted March 2, 2007 The really cool thing is that it renders the thumbnail dynamically, adding the speed dialled page into the cache. When you do click it, it is already cached and loads near instantly. Hence the "speed" dial :) Link to comment https://www.neowin.net/forum/topic/542758-opera-unveils-speed-dial/#findComment-588362362 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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