Opera 9.5 adds Opera Link: synchronized favorites

One of the biggest challenges as a mobile device user is keeping things in sync. There's nothing worse to pick up a device only to find that information you expected to see isn't there; worse yet: knowing that is there... on another device you own. Opera takes a step today to make that pain a little more bearable with Opera Link.

The new function is available in both the Opera 9.5 beta and the Opera Mini 4 beta. Using Opera Link and a free account on the Opera servers, you'll see the same bookmarks, personal bar and speed dial screens regardless of device, so long as your using the supported Opera browser. Opera link is a small but useful idea that mobile device users should love in Opera. Not an Opera user? Check our writeup of Google Browser Sync which is a very similar plug-in for Firefox. Internet Explorer users on PCs can use Zinkmo for the same feature.

Comments

[cr0ft]

I've been running the Kestrel alpha release for some time now and it is my day-to-day browser. Going to get the beta now and continue. Stunningly fast, very compatible, all the great Opera features... definitely the thinking mans browser. ;)

The link feature is fantastic, and completely unobtrusive. You just log in once on the browser you want to sync with and you're off. Just yesterday I did some housekeeping in my bookmarks at home and everything was synched out to two other browsers I use (two machines at work) no muss, no fuss this morning. I didn't even see that anything happened, the bookmarks were just in order, as I had left them.

The only little issue I had with it is that it syncs everything. The bad thing about that is if you happen to log in on a browser that already has some bookmarks, you could wind up with tons of duplicates... so the key there was to delete every bookmark on the second browser and any other browser BEFORE doing an initial sync, and things worked great.

Now to download that beta...

[Daniel Goldman]

cr0ft, it's great to hear that you're enjoying Opera.

As for the duplicate bookmarks. That's only an issue when you have multiple installations of Opera 9.5 on the same computer.

From the Opera Link FAQ (http://www.opera.com/products/link/faq/):
To prevent this situation, remove your existing bookmarks before logging in with the second browser (remember to make a backup first). Alternatively, delete the duplicate bookmarks. An easy way to do this is to go to "Bookmarks" > "Manage Bookmarks". Click on "View" > "Sort by name".

Daniel
Opera Software

[cr0ft]

Oh, I'm way past that situation myself, working without a problem here - and obviously, unlike some of the alpha early adopters, I took backups of my backups of my bookmarks before I entrusted those to an alpha release. ;)

Cleaning up dupes with just a sort by name would be pretty grim considering the amounts I have, so glad I don't have to (and that few others will either considering how many will actually have two installs on a single machine.) Fortunately there are great third-party bookmark file handlers out there though to sort and clean out dupes if it should be needed.

The beta seems very solid too so far too, but it speaks a lot for the quality of this browser that I was using an alpha release for weeks and had nary a problem. Of course, I've been an Opera fan now since version 5 or some such, so been using it a while. An yes, I'm a bit of an annoying fanboy. :P

[Ayrkain]

Foxmarks is another FF addon that performs the same function.

[cr0ft]

Yeah, but I for one feel comfortable having my bookmarks stored on Operas servers, and I don't need to install any third-party addons with their own set of bugs to get the functionality.

Also, this feature extends to Opera Mini for those who use that browser on their phone, which is kind of cool.

And meanwhile, Opera 9.5 is still the fastest browser in the world. :)