Content Blocking

[beatcanvas]

beatcanvas last edited by

One of the reasons I use Opera is because of its content blocking feature. Yesterday, I'm prompted to update Opera and now that feature is completely gone.

What the hell? Where did it go? Why did you get rid of that?

[leocg]

leocg Moderator Volunteer last edited by

Content blocking was never implemented in Opera Blink. However, you can use an extension to achieve it.

[zalex108]

zalex108 last edited by

Content blocking was never implemented in Opera Blink. However, you can use an extension to achieve it.

Leocg and other Admins should be very disappointed remembering the difference between Opera and Blink.

"You cannot know the meaning of your life until you are connected to the power that created you". · Shri Mataji Nirmala Devi

[lando242]

lando242 last edited by

Opera 12 was for Power Users. Opera Blink is not. Its like crying that you can't haul around sheets of 4x8 plywood in a Miata because you no longer drive a 74 Ford F-150. Its a different browser for a different user group. If Opera 12 had had enough user to justify its continued existence it would still be around. So they had to streamline the bowser down to something that was more maintainable and could be justified with a smaller user base. If more people had used it it wouldn't be gone.

[davidmichaelmorrell]

davidmichaelmorrell last edited by

Actually I strongly disagree that it was necessary to stream down Opera because of its lack of user base, because its lack of user base was due to the lack of marketing to point out to users the differences and advantages of Opera 12.17 over its competitors. Had it been marketed well the user base would have certainly climbed, as practically everyone I would tell about Opera's useful features would be sold and converted. Content blocking was such an easy sell for the majority of the population had they known it existed, as was the ability to place the tabs on the left so that one could give them enough width to read the page titles and thus navigate back and forth. It does not take a power user to see the advantage of the tab features that so simplified the usage but are now gone, yet even the simplest of users typically have dozens of tabs open.

Furthermore, just how difficult can it be to develop such basic features such as left hand side tab placement, click on tab to minimize, and basic content blocking. If the software is written well in the first place these are straightforward, trivial, and tiny features to implement.

Given the sophistication of the average user's life in today's world and given the core importance that Internet browsing is to function in this world, it is nonsense to believe that one could not find a significant user base for features that made browsing tremendously more simple and effective. The problem was that hardly anyone knew that a browser with these features existed in the first place. What's the point of developing another browser such as the latest Opera when it has no benefits over Chrome and is just as deficient? There is no reason for anyone to download it when there are no distinguishing advantages. Perhaps the new core is written cleaner so that some of these trivial features can be added.

As a side note, it is actually impossible to open dozens of tabs on eBay without content blocking because every other seller uses adobe flash software that runs rotating galleries that run in the background and consume resources. The simple solution was to block those providers who wrote those poorly behaved nuisance applications and voila, no freezing while surfing eBay. This is still a problem for virtually every browser something that only Opera 12.17 solves.

So while I am waiting for a better browser to appear that has the necessary features for simpler and more effective browsing, I am stuck with Opera 12 and its drawbacks such as a single process engine that on a Core i7 with 8 logical CPUs is a lament, and its inability to implement HTML5 due to its abandonment.

[donq]

donq last edited by

Furthermore, just how difficult can it be to develop such basic features such as left hand side tab placement, click on tab to minimize, and basic content blocking. If the software is written well in the first place these are straightforward, trivial, and tiny features to implement.

Have you been involved in (public) software development?

[blackbird71]

blackbird71 last edited by

Actually I strongly disagree that it was necessary to stream down Opera because of its lack of user base, because its lack of user base was due to the lack of marketing to point out to users the differences and advantages of Opera 12.17 over its competitors. Had it been marketed well the user base would have certainly climbed, as practically everyone I would tell about Opera's useful features would be sold and converted. ...

@davidmichaelmorrell, this has all been hashed and re-hashed countless times over the past couple of years in Opera's forums. As I have come to understand it, Presto Opera was 'streamed down' because of the heavy cost to Opera ASA of maintaining and updating its own custom Presto rendering engine, along with the effort needed to obtain and retain browser compatibility with loads of popular websites which had no interest in coding their sites to assure Presto compatibility.

Once the decision to replace the Presto engine had been made by Opera, it was apparent the rest of the browser would have to be rebuilt from the new engine on up. Then the questions became what features should be coded into the new browser and why? The strategic decision was made by Opera to pursue a much more streamlined browser having much fewer user-settings, and to export responsibility for user customization to individual extensions for the users that wanted them. Users may disagree with Opera's conclusions (and many of us did at the time), but they were Opera's alone to draw.

As @donq has asked, just how much involvement have you had in software development at the major level of a web browser, all squarely in the public eye? Asking "just how difficult can it be?" betrays a lack of hard experience in how difficult things of this sort really can be, how long they take, and how much developmental money they end up costing. At the end of the day, Opera ASA still has to make money for its stockholders/owners, so the development costs rolled into a 'free' browser have to be carefully considered ahead of time.

I write all this as a 'niche' techno-user myself, one who really desires deep customizability in my browser, rich built-in feature sets, and so on. But I also realize that many of today's web users only want a streamlined browser with a number of unique browsing convenience features built in, rather than the ability to customize every jot and tittle of the browser interface. When I want and need those configurable elements, I can turn to Firefox (at least for a little while longer), Vivaldi, Olde Opera, or something like those - and I often do. But I don't expect Opera (or even Chrome) to abandon its chosen market and development strategy just to please me or some others like me. Each browser brand is whatever it is, and every user has to navigate among them in the marketplace to find what works best for that user. At the end of the day, the browser maker calls the shots on his browser design and which users he targets with it.