Opera Turbo Speeds Desktop Browsing, but at What Cost?
Opera Labs today launched a preview of the Turbo feature planned for version 10 of their desktop browser. Much like their mobile browsers, Opera uses server-side optimizations and compression technology to serve up web pages fast. They offer a video demonstration if you’re not the adventurous type that jumps on preview downloads. In it, they load the Slashdot home page: both with and without the Turbo feature running. They also limit the connection speeds to 100kbps for the demo. You can see the difference in the above screencap: Turbo is on the right and is nearly four times faster.
I consider faster browsing a good thing, but with mobile broadband speeds trending faster, is this technology a solution in search of a problem? No doubt there are some regions that can greatly benefit so I think there is a market for this, albeit a shrinking one over the long term. The other challenge is one of privacy. The typical complaint I hear with services like this is that people don’t want the provider to have browsing details or personal data. As we rely more on the cloud for data-intensive services, this “cost” be a huge barrier to adoption for Opera. The flipside for mobile browsing: compressed web data could help folks from bumping up against monthly bandwidth caps.
No thanks. I lost interest in Opera around the same time that they decided to waste my taxes to help them compete.
It may be a lot faster but it makes the screen a lot dimmer – extra power draw maybe?
A bit late, but w/e
But what isn’t mentioned is that the image is taken from a video/animation that compares the two sites loading, opera with turbo on and opera without turbot on iirc.
And since it’s a race, when one of them finishes before the other, it darkens out so that you can tell that it’s finished.
@Jake: I guess you lost interest in Mozilla and Google to then, considering that they joined Opera’s complaint? And in Microsoft since they have logged antitrust complaints against Google (and Google against Microsoft)? So what are you going to use now?
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@Kevin C.: “with mobile broadband speeds trending faster, is this technology a solution in search of a problem? No doubt there are some regions that can greatly benefit so I think there is a market for this, albeit a shrinking one over the long term.”
How is this a solution in search of a problem when most of the world is without broadband? Some regions can benefit? Most regions can. Including much of the US, as broadband isn’t even available everywhere there!
Long term? I doubt that there will ever be 100% perfect network coverage across the world, and if that ever happens, it’s probably 50-100 years from now. Very long term.
Never mind the fact that more and more people are away from their home broadband connection, and often relying on shared wireless connections (making them slow).
Is a speedy browser a solution for one sort of problem?
When the new Safari came out, suddenly I was getting through on coffee house crowded routers. And the slow broadband we get in Boulder during a Chinook wind – the other browsers on my MacBook Pro with VM to Windows XP weren’t making it. Safari was.
Could there be lots of handshaking going on? So a FAST browser does give an advantage?
Comcast, TimeWarner, and AT&T are attempting to push the broadband industry toward metered billing. In that scenario, Opera Turbo’s compression will translate into reduced usage costs and make good sense.
I can see use for Opera turbo, using it on the road connecting with your cell phone to browse the web. This could help speed up your web browsing. I use my BB Storm as BT DUN & USB cable to my MSI, SC3, Aigo P8860, and Macbook Pro when on the road; even though the Storm has Rev. A which is very fast opening web pages, this extra speed would be nice when on the road and searching for info on the internet. I think Opera should do this for a mobile phone browser. I use Bolt browser for my Storm and it loads pages pretty much between 5 to 8 seconds.
HG:
Opera already IS doing this on mobile phones. Opera Mini ring a bell?
Bolt is an Opera Mini clone!
I’m using opera turbo now and I can tell you there is no noticeable screen dimming at all, plus I’m using mobile broadband and it’s now a hell of alot faster.
This is a godsend for mobile users.