Opera lays out vision for future of web browsing with experimental Neon browser
Opera has announced Neon, its first ever concept browser intended to showcase what the web could be. Neon is quite a visual treat to look at, and it serves up a brand new interface that encourages you to interact with the browser in novel ways.
Opera has an eye on shaking up the standard, tabbed browsing experience that we’re all used to. The company just announced Neon, its first ever concept browser intended to showcase what the web could be.
Neon differs from mainstays like Chrome and Safari by a fair bit. In fact, it diverges from the regular Opera browser as well, offering a unique interface that invites you to interact with the browser in novel and unconventional ways.
In Neon, the startup page mirrors your desktop background, which may help provide the impression of a more seamless transition from desktop to browser.
A sidebar on the left houses the video player, image gallery, and download manager, while tabs live on the right in the form of round, visual icons that make it a lot easier to identify them.
There is an intelligent tab management system in place as well, where frequently used tabs will automatically float to the top of the list, while less commonly accessed ones sink to the bottom.
A look at Neon's home page.
Another major change from the standard layout is the address bar, which has been dislodged from its usual location at the top of the screen. It now takes the form of a minimalist text entry field that sits above a cluster of tab icons on the main page, where it doubles as an omnibox that can trawl the web and your local hard drive.
And even though this is just an experimental browser, there are still small touches of polish, like the animations when you open and close tabs.
There are also nifty tools like a crop-to-snap feature that lets you quickly grab screenshots and save them to the built-in image gallery. On top of that, there’s a pop-out video overlay called the Player, which aggregates videos and songs from all your tabs and lets you play them regardless of which tab you’re currently on. Finally, Neon supports split-screen viewing as well, allowing you to view two pages side by side.
Neon is currently available to download for both Windows and macOS, so you can try it out for yourself.
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