Opera Opera 10 (code named Peregrine) is slated to arrive later this year. As a long time Opera user I have my own expectations of Peregrine. Here, I present to you ten improvements that I want to see in Opera v10. I am not a codie so my wish-list doesn�t deal with under the hood rendering engine improvements (only exception being Wish #8), rather all of them are noticeable feature additions/improvements.

10. Better Download Manager : Opera already has an excellent download manager. In fact it’s much better than download managers integrated with other browsers. But there is always scope for improvement. I want to see ability to limit the bandwidth being used by Opera’s download manager. The ability to queue downloads would also be a nice addition.

9. Inline Spell Checker : The oSpell userjs is excellent as an inline spell checker. However, this is something that should be provided by Opera out of the box. Heck, even barebones Firefox has it!

8. Prioritize page loading : This feature was suggested by Scott at myOpera forums. He wants Opera to give higher priority to the foreground tab and load that webpage faster than the ones in the background. I think this is a wonderful idea and would definitely make Opera more productive.

7. Private Browsing : Safari has a neat little feature called Private Browsing. Firefox users can use extensions like Stealther and Distrust. Yes, Opera allows users to delete private data. But this is different. When it is enabled web pages are not added to the History, items are automatically removed from the Downloads window and information (including names and passwords) is not saved for Autofill. So only private data collected during Private Browsing is deleted. The utility of Private browsing is pretty obvious.

6. Rich Text Copy : Sometime back Opera removed rich text copy, apparently due to security concerns. Talk about paranoia! I hate the fact that they didn�t even give users the option. I hate the fact that I have to use another browser to copy text with all the formatting. Only other alternative is using a complicated solution devised by Lex1. I hope to see rich text copy back in next version. Plain text copy should remain the default (associated with Ctrl+C), but users should also be allowed to copy text with all formatting via the right click context menu and keyboard shortcut.

5. Activity Monitor : This feature is already present in Safari, and is extremely handy when you want to download streaming content. Currently I have to use Naviscope to monitor browser activity. This is something that should be built into Opera.

4. Better Pop-up Blocker : Although Opera does a better job than most other browsers it fails to block a few types of pop-up ads. For example go to http://www.vtunnel.com/ and click on the search field. Opera fails to block the pop-up that�s triggered by clicking. I hope peregrine is able to distinguish between clicking on a hyperlink and other areas of the page. But nothing is more annoying that those in-page floating ads.

3. Userjs Manager : I am sure this is something power users would appreciate. Userjs functionality was added way back in v8. Strangely enough, Opera Software hasnt yet integrated it with Opera Browser’s UI. Not surprisingly, most Opera users aren’t even aware of this feature. Adding an userjs manager shouldn�t be too difficult. In fact thanks to George from myOpera forums we already have a 3rd party Userjs manager. I also want Opera Software to start Userjs gallery on their website.

2. Form Filler : This is something that the users have been demanding for along time. So far Opera Software has turned a deaf ear to all user requests. Hopefully an intelligent form filler (similar to AI Roboform) would be included in Peregrine.
[shoust and other opera users are trying to come up with an userjs to achieve this. Check out this thread]

1. API for Add-ons : Doesn’t matter how feature rich the developers make Opera there’ll always be that little specific feature that the power users will miss. Opera has long been considered to be a browser aimed at power users, yet it lags behind other browsers in this respect. In fact it’s the only major browser (for Windows) that doesn�t allow add-ons. Firefox, Internet Explorer 7 and Maxthon have all implemented add-ons successfully. Undoubtedly extensions are Firefox’s biggest strength. Lack of add-ons means that power users would never switch over from Firefox. And it’s these power users who helped in spreading Firefox. These power users are often opinion makers. Without add-ons Opera cannot hope to get more than 2.5% marketshare. Anyone who doesn�t want to use these add-ons are most welcome to do so. But, Opera Software must provide an option for rest of us. I dicussed the pros of providing an API here.

What do you think about my wishlist? What are the features you want to see in Opera 10?

P.S. Another feature I want to see is update manager. However I didnt include it in the list as according to the information I have it is going to be included in future versions of Opera.