Mobile browsers, also called minibrowsers or microbrowsers, are web browsers designed specifically for use on mobile phones or PDAs. They are optimized to display Internet content effectively on small screens of handheld or portable devices. They are usually a stripped down version of their desktop counterpart, but the required features of these browsers are high; as if they should use the low memory capacity and low bandwidth of wireless handheld devices.
There are many mobile browsers on the market today, such as Microsoft’s Internet Explorer Mobile, Google’s Android browser, and Research in Motion’s Blackberry browser, but Opera Mini (web-based browser provided by Opera) is the best web browser that the smartphone device market has seen so far. So what makes opera mini the undisputed king of mobile browsing? Let’s find out:
Opera mini allows us to view the entire web page, an important feature that Internet Explorer Mobile or any other major brand mobile browser lacks. Open Facebook.com page from Internet Explorer Mobile and you will be redirected to “m.facebook.com”; open it in opera mini and it will allow you to enjoy the website in all its splendor. Opera-mini includes several new features, including: Automatic web address competition, making it easy to get to the site you need.
Opera-mini also includes tools to attach files to web-based emails, upload content and photos to your blog or site, and also download email attachments that can be stored in the phone’s memory. Opera-mini also gives us the option to save the page offline, so that we can view the page even when we are not connected to the network. It also allows you to search for text within a web page, so you can access information quickly.
Some other features included in the mini version of Opera are: bookmark synchronization, speed dial, page view in landscape mode, power scroll mode. With the development of mobile technology, web browsers now support full CSS and Opera Mini is no exception. It has native support for CSS 2.1 and JavaScript. Due to limitations of phones and opera-mini’s client-server architecture, AJAX applications cannot be expected to function correctly, although XMLHttpRequest is supported, so many AJAX websites will function correctly.
Although Opera has been the undisputed king of the web browser domain, Firefox is ready to give it some tough competition in the coming times.
