English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

While researching user functionality in Opera I found some neat features. All browsers basically serve the same purpose but it’s nice when you can customize the browser to the way your use the internet and or your browser. Opera gives the user the ability to do just that, customize the browser to their liking, making for streamline browsing. Opera has a widget feature where you can create your own button do perform a certain task or open up a certain URL. This would be extremely useful for an IT person that is looking for one click to perform multiple functions. For example, a web based network utility that requires typing in the URL then logging in, etc. could be done with a custom button, saving time and the IT guy’s patience. http://webtoman.com/opera/custom/custom_buttons.php

Another cool feature is “create search”. When the user finds a search box on any particular web site, they can right click on the box and use this function. This allows the user to search with that search box, but with any search engine they prefer. The way it works is it sets the button on the website to the search button of the preferred search engine. It’s like having Google search on any website that has an open search box, pretty slick.

I think these two features would be pretty useful to someone in the IT profession. People that spend a lot of time on computers want their software to work they way they want, not how the software guys designed it. Opera seems like a good choice for exactly this reason.