When someone says “Internet browser,” it’s almost guaranteed that people today will have Google Chrome in mind. A sizable number might still say Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. Meanwhile, a small population will say Opera or Safari. Ultimately, a huge majority will have these five choices in mind when thinking of an Internet browser.
But what exactly is an Internet browser? Knowing the exact difference between these browsers isn’t common knowledge to everyone. Some will be satisfied with whatever browser is already available in the device they own. Most are more exposed to basic public opinion. Internet Explorer is slow so get Google Chrome. This leaves out other browsers and even the same browser’s other features from being put into consideration.
Recently, I was invited to a Tech in Asia meetup which was held in partnership with Opera. Huib Kleinhout, the product manager for Opera Coast, gave a talk on the state of the Philippine web and its future. He also explained how the different browsers from Opera seek to leverage data compression to work around slow Internet speeds. Finally, he gave a few short tips on how to maximize our Internet speeds.
First and foremost, he set the story for Philippine Internet. Opera Software, in a recent report, stated that the Philippines is the most active country in the world, based on mobile traffic from the company’s Opera Mini browser. According to the report, out of all the pages that we visit, most of our web traffic is directed to Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, Tumblr, and Pinterest. With recent pushes in the mobile market, smartphone adoption rates have grown from 41% to 55% over the past year. Opera Mini users in the country grew by 91% over the past year.
We don’t need a lengthy discussion to know that the state of our Internet pales in comparison to our ASEAN neighbors. We don’t have the best Internet speeds. If we can’t do anything about our speeds, then maybe we can do something about the data we transfer. Opera’s case is to maximize Internet usage by minimizing data sizes.
Social networking may have the most usage in our country, but it isn’t the most data-intensive type of mobile data usage. Internet users activate their data plans for file sharing, video, and audio streaming. A single webpage has an average of 2MB of data consisting mostly of images. With a low Internet connection, the average time with which a webpage loads also increases. The chances of a user staying decreases with it.
In comes Opera. The mobile browser has multiple versions for every usage. It’s not just Opera; it’s Opera browser, Opera Mini, Opera Max, and Opera Coast. And there’s also the Opera Turbo compression technology. That’s a mouthful. Let’s run through them one by one.
The Opera browser is at the head of the pack. It’s a secure, seamless, and accessible browser available for computers, mobile phones, tablets, and everything in between. The Opera browser is optimized even for traditional hard drives and slow Internet connections. It has a built-in Opera Turbo mode, which is the default compression mode used by most Opera products.
Opera Turbo compresses data on web pages up to 70% of its original size while still retaining the rich media content of the page, albeit compressed. It’s a data-savings solution tailored for hampered or limited Internet connections. For those boxed by slow Internet speeds (which, coincidentally, happens to most of the country), Opera Turbo shrinks down data so we can get where we need to go faster but still save up on data charges. According to Opera’s website, it “removes extraneous page elements, shaves off image pixels you won’t miss, diagnoses the state of your connection, and compresses downloads.”
As for security, Opera Turbo doesn’t interfere with any secure connections. Even if you’re browsing in https, Opera Turbo leaves you well enough alone. It doesn’t track or store your data in its servers.
Now that we’ve tackled the first browser, we can move on to the next: Opera Mini. This browser compresses data to an even greater extent. It offers up to 90% data compression. Before the page is sent to your phone, Opera Mini servers will convert it to .obml format, Opera Mini’s compressed web page format. Think of it as the web page taking a selfie of itself then sending it to you. However, it won’t be able to compress video, as opposed to Opera Turbo. It’s available on J2ME, Blackberry, Android, iOS, and S60 platforms.
Next is Opera Max, which isn’t a browser per se. It’s a data managing app for all your other apps. Think of all the data your apps consume, like Twitter and Instagram. Opera Max manages those apps with Opera Turbo. Like the browser, Opera Max can compress the data from these apps with Opera Turbo, activated by default.
Opera Coast is the new kid on the block. It’s a browser specifically hand-crafted and designed for iOS devices. It gives users a whole new browsing experience which is safe, smooth, and specifically tailored for the user. It suggests pages you might like and allows you to share pages with your own personal touch. Again, this browser comes with Opera Turbo compression.
As a personal final touch, Kleinhout laid down quick tips on how to “keep the web fast.” Number one, of course, would be to switch or continue using Opera’s data-saving solutions. Number two would be to prefer going to mobile websites, rather than using data-heavy apps, which, according to Kleinhout, consumes much more data than going to mobile browsers and going to the site itself. Finally, third would be to uninstall all unneeded apps. It’s an obvious piece of advice, but one that we need to be reminded of every so often.
Kleinhout also announced that it is working with local phone manufacturers in the country, like Cherry Mobile, to bring Opera browsers to its phones. It’s a very practical positioning solution to bring faster and more seamless Internet browsing to slower Internet connections. Definitely expect more out of Opera to bring optimized Internet to the whole country.
