Opera 11 to offer extensions

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Opera 11 to offer extensions

16 October 2010 1,097 views 2 Comments

Extensions were pioneered on Firefox by the open-source coders of Mozilla. Although a popular feature in that browser, it was also a performance suck and source of instability. Thereupon, extensions didn’t gain broad currency until Google Chrome shook up the browser space with Apple’s Safari adding this functionality shortly thereafter.

Opera Soft has announced that, late to the party or not, Opera 11 will feature extensions. Thereupon, extensions will be based on the W3C Widget spec and the first release will focus on “getting it right” with support focused on JavaScript, callouts, UI element tweaking and basic tab functionality.

Q. Will Opera Extensions be similar to extensions in other browsers?

A. Yes, Opera Extensions will be similar in some ways and we have tried to make it easy to port extensions from certain browsers.

For info on upcoming Opera 11 alphas and betas, as well as how to code extensions, visit Dev.Opera.

2 Comments »

KT said:

I would point out that browser extensions cannot be described as a “popular” feature in Firefox or other browsers. Only 30% of users have downloaded even ONE extension in Firefox and probably less in Chrome & Safari, given their user demographics. This means that over 70% of browser users do not know about or use any extension functionality. (Hardly surprising, given many users continue to still type URLs into search engines, instead of their browser address bar and don’t know how to use bookmarks.)

Opera has had “add-ons” for many years in the form of external-to-Opera widgets, user-javascripts, custom buttons, etc…Opera 11 is merely a formalization of an existing extension framework. Yes, there will be additional flexibility, but nevertheless it’s not much; but perception is reality, isn’t it?

Note that Opera’s extensive built-in feature set means that everyone’s ~100 favorite extensions already exist in Opera on initial-install. Many Firefox, Chrome extensions have been (and continue to be) reactions to native features in Opera.

Also, the Opera Link API will allow further integration to Opera’s industry-first sync system for bookmarks, notes, search engines, typed history, Speed Dial settings, content blocker rules and bookmarks toolbar (i.e., XMarks/FoxMarks was a reaction to Opera Link, when v9.50-beta1 introduced it in Oct. 2007).
http://www.opera.com/docs/history/#o95

# 16 October 2010 at 6:10 pm