Opera would find a lot more users posting their avatar pic if they didn't have to get involved with one more internet service company, in this cast it's Gravatar. Why - because people just tend to be distrustful when they find themselves being required to get involved like this for no apparent reason.

@leocg I am referring to this one:
"Launch Opera web browser and type opera://flags in addressbar and press Enter. ...
Now click inside "Search flags" text box and type weather. ..."

I enabled & saved the weather flag and could see it in the upper left but it doesn't stay?

Clicking on "Jalopnik" news feed takes me to a blank page . . . but if I copy and past the address into IE, Firefox or Chrome - no problem??

Regarding alobpreis' suggestions:

• Disabling extensions and the problem still occurs.
• Going to the blog using "in private window" mode and the problem doesn't occur.
• I know where to find developer options in the menu but don't know anything about what I am seeing.

It would seem that somehow the Opera browser in this machine thinks it's in India and there should be a setting or a work around.

(????)

Here is a little more information.
This problem only happens with Opera and only one computer, not my second computer. It does not happen with Internet Explorer and not just with my blog. I can type, paste or click on a blog link and the blog comes up but the extension in the address window is changed from dot com to dot in.

When I type my blog address into the opera browser window the correct blog comes up but the address extension is changed from .com to .in. I am in the USA no India.
Any ideas why this is happening?

Abrir la barra de tareas y propiedades del menú Inicio , haga clic en el botón Inicio , en Panel de control, en Apariencia y personalización y, a continuación, hacer clic en la barra de tareas y menú Inicio .
Desactive la casilla de verificación Bloquear la barra de tareas .
Seleccione la opción Ocultar automáticamente la casilla de verificación barra de tareas . La barra de tareas está oculta a la vista .

Yes, I think something bad snuck into my machine.
The reason I wanted to change the search engine is because it was only doing it with Opera and only Google. I did a system restore which seemed to fix the problem then saw Donq's message and ran ADWCleaner which was good advice.
Now I'll see what happens.

Google has started popping out ads from the side when I go to certain web pages which covers about a quarter of the webpage. I find no cure by searching Googles ad preferences page.
Is there a way to switch to a different search engine in Opera ??

It is a problem within Opera and it is being worked on.