@kupoglu If you're ever going to make a new install of Opera on Windows you can also disable a lot of these options during the process of installation. This holds true of Windows and Android alike. Just click on "options".

Thank you all for your highly appreciated and valued feedbacks.

@kupoglu If you're ever going to make a new install of Opera on Windows you can also disable a lot of these options during the process of installation. This holds true of Windows and Android alike. Just click on "options".

@NSrider I understand, although I have to get to a webpage to experience the same, yet.
In your case, if you're still satisfied with your Opera experience generally, why not use it as primary and default browser and Chrome for those cases, where Opera isn't accepted?
Firefox still seems to be a decent browser these days, but people say that it runs into more and more incompatabilities because of the Chromium monopoly. So it wouldn't probably give you the expected results, you should rather run Firefox as a somehow political statement upholding their own rendering engine Gecko as they do.

@Opera-QA-Team Will this lead to the Chromium version in Opera stable being closer to the most recent Chromium in Chrome and Edge?

@rick2 This was what struck me as well.

@imRizwan Thank you for your sharing your experience.

@leocg I agree, but I guess they don't hide it that much, probably and are more open about it. But that's a guess only.

@leocg I'm not quite sure of course. But I think, Firefox hasn't any such things. Chrome neither.
There are affiliate links in Vivaldi, but they are very open about it. You can turn them off as in Opera, but they are marked under the categroy "Direct Match".
Brave had some, but they got in serious trouble about it.
Leaving Edge, as they are the most suspicious of anything like that.

My concern isn't Opera having them generally. But that should be made transparent, as this was introduced without any announcement.

I've run over this article on notebookcheck.com (in German) recently:
https://www.notebookcheck.com/Wenn-die-Adresszeile-zum-Affiliate-Link-wird-Opera-leitet-aktiv-Adresseingaben-um.1189846.0.html
And I think it's generally true: Opera isn't very transparent about ads and affiliate links in their browser. The article makes reference to the privacy statement but also shows that it's very general in some ways.

I've seen this behavior in mobile (Android) and desktop alike that you're sometimes referred to some promotional sites before being referred to the website you put into the address bar.
You can disable this behavior in the enhanced address bar on desktop, on Android I think you have to disable any suggestions. But it was there by default and even if I disabled all other promotional settings, it's there. So if you're unlike me you don't recognize and even disable things in the browser, you don't really know what's going on there. Leading to such bad press as this one.

I've also had two new tiles on my speed dial from Amazon and Booking this morning although I turned out "show suggestions". So my personal preference simply is ignored and overruled.

I know that Opera has to make money for its hard work and I'm willing to support it. But it's also about trust. Can I trust my browser not to do some shady things in the background I don't know about and I wouldn't agree if I knew.

In the process of installing when I go for further options I'm already asked about such things like promotional campaigns. It should be made a standard part in installation not be hidden in the options menu in my opinion. But it at least is transparent in a way. But I don't want to be "surprised'" later on by such hidden things, I would like to be asked. And I think it would also be the better way for Opera as well.
Trust can be destroyed and it may never come back, so why not building trust among their users? In the end, it's them and not easy money that keeps Opera going, isn't it?

Wasn't Beta originally meant to assure quality of development? Isn't that necessary any longer? Otherwise I happily use the Early Bird features already.

Thank you all for your highly appreciated and valued feedbacks.