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Your thumbnails, now prettier!

March 10, 2011 · by Arjan van Leeuwen

The last two updates you got weren't that exciting, so we wanted to give you some more stuff to play with today. There are many improvements in the speed dial, but the first thing you might notice is that thumbnails are now generated differently.

Instead of always generating a thumbnail of the whole page, Opera intelligently tries to find a representative part of the site to display. To do that, it searches through all the images on the page and scores them based on size, position and file name. For example, an image called 'logo.png' in the top left corner will be a good candidate. Opera will make a thumbnail of the surroundings of that image, making it clearer which site is in the thumbnail.

Alternatively, it's possible to specify exactly what your page's thumbnail should look like. If your page knows how to handle the 'minimized' view mode, Opera will use that in the speed dial. If you don't need a dynamically changing thumbnail, you can specify an image to use for your page by linking it in the page's <head> like this (the image should be at least 114x114 pixels):

<link rel="image_src" type="image/jpeg" href="thumbnail.jpg">

Websites now also have the possibility to tell Opera how often they want their thumbnail updated. The Preview-refresh HTTP header can be used for this purpose. The example below will cause the thumbnail for this website to be refreshed every 10 seconds:

<meta http-equiv="preview-refresh" content="10">

Apart from all that goodness Opera now makes it easier for you to install plugins if you don't have them installed on your system. And of course there are all the bug fixes in this snapshot... I could talk about this for days sherlock. Check the full changelog for all the details.

WARNING: This is a development snapshot: It contains the latest changes, but may also have severe known issues, including crashes, and data loss situations. In fact, it may not work at all.

Download

Highlights

Plugin installation wizard: Easy installation of, for example, the Flash plugin if it's missing from the system.

Sites can now reload Speed Dials automatically using one of two methods:

  • HTTP header: Preview-refresh: seconds
  • HTML code: <meta http-equiv="preview-refresh" content="seconds">

The Speed Dial thumbnail/icon is now determined using these criteria (in order):

  1. Send a http header to tell the server it's a Speed Dial request
  2. Detect big icons - <link rel=icon,apple-touch-icon ...> - and display them instead of a thumbnail
  3. Find the important part of the page (logo), and zoom in closer
  4. Apply CSS view-mode: minimized when generating the thumbnail

Changelog
Search hijacking protection: Opera now prevents third party applications from hijacking searches and other customizations in Opera.

Desktop (general)
  • DSK-301516 (Transfers disappear when closing a private tab)
  • DSK-308449 (Zoom in shortcut (ctrl+Plus) doesn't work on keyboard locales where you need a shift modifier to type a plus)
  • DSK-316710 (Crash on startup due to address field in main bar)
  • DSK-328063 (Crash with changing icon extension on extender menu)
  • DSK-328919 (Correctly use the setting for max persistant http connections per server)
  • DSK-329209 (Empty Fast Forward Tip pops up when it should not)
  • DSK-329421 (Missing privacy checkboxes for extension opened in dev mode)
  • DSK-330050 (Crash on startup when dialogs appear before the main window)
  • Prevent third party applications from hijacking searches and other customizations in Opera

Speed Dial
  • DSK-330448 (Frozen Speed Dial loading animation instead of thumbnails)
  • DSK-329300 (Plus button is replaced with thumbnail)
  • DSK-312301 (Speed Dial background image becomes enabled after every Opera upgrade)
  • DSK-329500 (Speed Dial "+" button disappears and page gets screwed up)
  • DSK-330191 (Zooming when typing + or - in the Speed Dial search field)
  • DSK-329892 (Thumbnail content is blurred if Speed Dial is zoomed using mouse wheel on Zoom menu)
  • DSK-329960 (Disabled Title field looks ugly on classic XP)
  • DSK-329963 (Disabled Title field can be focused by mouse, but not tabbed to)
  • DSK-329993 (Crash after adding Speed Dial - multiple plus signs)
  • DSK-328329 (Opera crashes when changing width of Speed Dial window)
  • DSK-330520 Make the Add Speed Dial dialog skinnable
  • DSK-325726 Let sites reload Speed Dials using the "Preview-refresh:seconds" HTTP, or <meta http-equiv="preview-refresh" content="seconds">
  • DSK-325538 Use thumbnail friendly content when available

Windows (general)
  • New Plugin installation wizard
  • DSK-327707 (Plugin settings not accessible in windowless flash)
  • DSK-299461 (HTML5 video, animated gif animations and downloads stop playing when context menu is open)
  • DSK-328939 (Allow cancelling onkeydown for all keys (not just arrow keys, backspace, etc))
  • DSK-328543 (Plugins can cause Opera to not shut down)

Winstaller
  • DSK-320476 (Failed to modify the registry named Software\Classes\Opera.HTML\FriendlyTypeName. Error code: 39 or 40)
  • DSK-326362 (When the installer can't find a shortcut for a second Opera install, the installer bails out)
  • DSK-326364 (Error code 14 on installing/upgrading)
  • DSK-326573 (Respect the language choice made in the installer and change Opera's language)
  • DSK-326709 (Error on installing Opera, error code 89)
  • DSK-326865 (Error 76 when upgrading from 11.00 to 11.01)
  • DSK-326914 (Error code 17 when upgrading from MSI)
  • DSK-326936 (Installer fails if it can't check if a shortcut exists or not, error 68)
  • DSK-326963 (Crash when upgrading to Opera 11.01)
  • DSK-327044 (Wrong language after autoupdate to 11.01)
  • DSK-327672 (Uninstaller randomly freezes)
  • DSK-327786 (Cancel button is active in autoupdate dialog when upgrading from MSI to new installer)
  • DSK-328710 (Uninstaller should ask for reason for uninstalling)
  • DSK-328833 (Pixelated installer icon on the Windows 7 taskbar)
  • DSK-329267 (Back button is missing from Options page)
  • DSK-329769 (Opera sometimes fails to set itself as default when installing for current user)
  • DSK-329141 (size of checkbox field is too small for a translation of remove profile option)
  • Windows installer has an option to remove profile when uninstalling: actually been in the past few snapshots wink

Mac
  • DSK-297626 (Crash when making selection from drop-down)
  • DSK-329089 (International font settings are not remembered)
  • DSK-329091 (Broken Cyrillic local paths on Mac)
  • DSK-330098 (Files saved with no file extension if Save dialog is opened with hidden file extensions ticked)

Linux/FreeBSD
  • CORE-36832 (Opera crashes when reloading a page whilst moving the mouse over a plugin)
  • DSK-329720 (Opera crashes after closing a tab that contained certain plugin content)
  • DSK-329900 (Scrolling down causes the page to disappear if certain plugin content was displayed)
  • DSK-329901 (Clicking on the Opera sys tray icon twice causes the page to disappear if the page contained plugins)
  • DSK-329310 (Plugins from hidden tabs are sometimes shown on top of curent document)
  • DSK-329401 (Cannot copy text from certain applications on 64bit Linux/FreeBSD)
  • DSK-330069 (Stopping Unite crashes Opera)
  • DSK-329874 (Opera crashes on exit after hiding when a dialog is displayed)
  • DSK-327669 (X freezes when opening file save dialog while zoom popup is open)
  • DSK-329982 (Tooltips re-appear and remain after clicking on the Opera sys tray icon twice)
  • DSK-329415 (X11 workspace colour is broken)
  • DSK-329278 (The "Show crash log upload dialog" preference doesn't work)
  • DSK-325806 (Update opera.desktop file to include x-scheme-handler/http, x-scheme-handler/http, x-scheme-handler/ftp and x-scheme-handler/mailto)
  • DSK-324759 (Starting the install script from a directory other than './' with invalid package contents causes it to attempt to create '/damaged')
  • DSK-323761 (Include the Opera Summary and Description in the tar install script)

Readers' comments

Comments left by My Opera members under the original post: the first 50, as archived.

  • Shane Bundy10. March 2011, 19:56

    First!

    Thanks for the new build! up

  • Ricardo10. March 2011, 20:00

    First time at Second.

  • Luca10. March 2011, 20:02

    bigeyes
    Trying!!

  • Karolina K. Nowak10. March 2011, 20:02

    Heheh thanks for the new build smile will give it a long ruuun today smile

  • Robert Meijers10. March 2011, 20:03

    Nice list of Linux fixes smile Was waiting for the plugin issues to be fixed and was thinking of going back a few builds, or to the stable.

    Now lets wait for Ruari to update the PKGBUILD for Arch Linux:)

  • Martin10. March 2011, 20:04

    Awesome!

  • Shane Bundy10. March 2011, 20:07

    I was just about to download the previous snapshot until this came up. p

    DSK-329209 (Empty Fast Forward Tip pops up when it should not)
    Prevent third party applications from hijackingsearches and other customizations in Opera
    DSK-328543 (Plugins can cause Opera to not shut down)

    yes

  • BS-Harou10. March 2011, 20:09

    For some sites this new thumbnails looks really nice, but for some it looks much worse. Can you add an option to edit menu to load thumbnail of whole site? smile

  • nimu_chan10. March 2011, 20:10

    Thank you very much!!up

  • Kertesz Laszlo10. March 2011, 20:11

    I spotted a problem on youtube with webm - if the video is set to fullscreen, the bottom progress/control bar dissapears for good after a few seconds and there is no way getting it back and you are stuck in fullsecreen mode . You have to reload the page.
    This only happens with webm/html5 videos, flash seems to work fine.

  • Ronin10. March 2011, 20:11

    Mod edit: Please try to be specific and to the point if you have any feedback.

  • odi-profanum-vulgus10. March 2011, 20:11

    Cool. Thx for Linux fixes, those give me headache last few days.

  • Ruarí Ødegaard10. March 2011, 20:12

    Originally posted by Robert90:

    Now lets wait for Ruari to update the PKGBUILD for Arch Linux:)

    He he .. I hadn't realised we went live! Done.

  • BS-Harou10. March 2011, 20:14

    BTW when I try to switch some speed dials the one I hold freezes during the animation. This is intentional? I hope it's not sad

  • set10. March 2011, 20:14

    Regression, tabs freeze a bit when moved left or right across the tab-bar.

    Appears to be a side-effect of tab grouping

    Edit:

    A lot more animated stuff is freezing all over the place, for example try to rearrange speed dial thumbnails

  • Cristian10. March 2011, 20:16

    Finally, a great snap... Thanks! and testing


    yes

  • allspark10. March 2011, 20:18

    When I try to change the language, the installer always crash with error message "Error initializing Opera: module 10 (locale)".
    (My OS is Win XP)

  • Егор10. March 2011, 20:19

    Link for testing 'minimized' view mode: http://dev.w3.org/2006/waf/widgets-vmmf/test-suite/test-cases/web-page-tests/vm-minimized.html

  • Zotlan10. March 2011, 20:20

    Will there be a way to get the old thumbnails back? When you have two thumbnails of different parts of the same site they end up looking the same, which is very annoying. Plus the old thumbnails could be handy to quickly check on whether a site had been updated, now that is no longer possible.

    (so far no crashes on Linux BtW)

  • Robert Meijers10. March 2011, 20:20

    Originally posted by ruario:

    He he .. I hadn't realised we went live! Done.


    I was too impatient and already changed it myself p

    Now you've done some updates to the speeddial thumbnails, are you also planning to update the visual tab thumbnails? Last snapshots it looks like those thumbnails are getting worse and worse. After a restart a lot of tabs only display the upper left part of the page (and much to big), and sometimes they just display garbage. But fixing those issues is not what I mean (but yes, should happen), I'm more thinking of real time previews (like Windows 7 taskbar thumbnails etc.) but that probably requires HWA (so the graphic from the tab could just be copied, cropped and displayed at another place on the screen). But a more intelligent algorithm would also be nice (displaying the first <section> or something like it, or using the "minimized view mode" as the speeddial thumbnail does now)

  • Quadunit40410. March 2011, 20:20

    Finally I can update Opera on Linux now that the plugins work again cheers

    But where's the fix for WOT? It still gets stuck on "Activating WOT..." down

  • Avola10. March 2011, 20:20

    All my 29 thumbnails still look the same (yes, I've reloaded them). confused
    Edit: when adding new sites thumbnails won't load at all, the space is left blank.
    Win7 x64, upgraded from previous snapshot

  • Ricardo10. March 2011, 20:25

    1. Drag-drop animation seems broken, ie. using too many cpu, not fluid and stalling during the drag way.
    2. Will we have something like speedial's auto-zoom as we had in all previous versions? I like them to fit in one screen, even with smaller sizes.
    3. Horizontal scrollbar doesn't show up when all dials don't fit on screen.
    4. I can't see any good reason for thumbnail refresh when changing speeddial zoom factor. I want to keep the same picture, not take new ones.
    5. Also I don't want sites to change currently saved thumbs without my consent.
    6. What's up with that hyper-big "+" sign? Please, design it better, we are not blind enough.
    7. Can't use path variables like "{SmallPreferences}" for changing SD's background image (was possible before the new speed-dial).

  • Gousti Fruit10. March 2011, 20:26

    Originally posted by allspark:

    When I try to change the language, the installer always crash with error message "Error initializing Opera: module 10 (locale)".
    (My OS is Win XP)


    First time I tried to install, it crashed after displaying that same error.
    Second time went OK, I displayed the installation options but didn't change anything before continuing the installation process.

  • odi-profanum-vulgus10. March 2011, 20:27

    Those new thumbnail generation method - mostly works well for me, but for two pages it is totally wrong (http://www.korwin-mikke.pl - login box is on thumbnail p, and http://korwin-mikke.blog.onet.pl). Option to disable this auto-detect-important-page-part thingie.

  • bentronic10. March 2011, 20:27

    I agree with previous commenters that the intelligent thumbnail feature should be opt-out. I have my Hulu queue on my speed dial specifically so that I can see when it gets updated.

    I'm not liking the way the new speed dial's "add a new site" button creates a new row if you've filled the last existing row (e.g., if you have 3 columns and 3, 6 or 9 speed dials). Instead, maybe there should be a special, smaller-width button at the end of the last row in this case.

    Additionally, it seems to me like the new flow layout is ideal for resizing within the speed dial window: there'd be no scrolling, but instead the thumbnails would get smaller. There's no sense in this "quick launch" page having out-of-sight thumbnails.

  • Dave10. March 2011, 20:29

    Oops. Looks like the reload time on speeddials is set to 1 second in the right click "custom" dropdown.

    Ubuntu 10.10 64 bit.
    Opera 11.10.2033 64bit

  • minho10. March 2011, 20:31

    Testing up

  • Gousti Fruit10. March 2011, 20:31

    Strange problem: when I select/deselect (focus/unfocus) the textarea on the current page to enter some comment, Opera freezes for 2s, and CPU is 100% (in fact 25% on my quad core).

    EDIT: no, even worse, it happens when I hover the div (?) containing the textarea ! That is, the whole block with the blinking black/red "Please keep comments relevant..."

  • raphweng1310. March 2011, 20:33

    The new Speed Dial previews are cool on the one hand, but on the other hand some sites use the old ones and this mashup looks terrible. Also, engadget now uses www.engadget.com/media/apple-touch-icon.png as the preview image which looks strange to me - I like to see the actual site.

  • Ricardo10. March 2011, 20:33

    Originally posted by GoustiFruit:

    Strange problem: when I select/deselect (focus/unfocus) the textarea on the current page to enter some comment, Opera freezes for 2s, and CPU is 100% (in fact 25% on my quad core).

    +1

  • Gousti Fruit10. March 2011, 20:34

    Originally posted by RicardoB:

    Originally posted by GoustiFruit:

    Strange problem: when I select/deselect (focus/unfocus) the textarea on the current page to enter some comment, Opera freezes for 2s, and CPU is 100% (in fact 25% on my quad core).

    +1
    I modified my comment can you check if it is the same for you ?

  • allspark10. March 2011, 20:35

    Originally posted by GoustiFruit:

    Originally posted by allspark:

    When I try to change the language, the installer always crash with error message "Error initializing Opera: module 10 (locale)". (My OS is Win XP)

    First time I tried to install, it crashed after displaying that same error. Second time went OK, I displayed the installation options but didn't change anything before continuing the installation process.
    But I would like to change the language. I have got this error message each time.

  • Szymon10. March 2011, 20:37

    http://i56.tinypic.com/rqyus0.png
    Emmm... no, thanks. Is there any way to turn it off?

  • Avola10. March 2011, 20:38

    Please make the speed dial scrollbar respect the "show scroll bars" option, and give us a way to remove the Configure Speed Dial button (or at least move it to the bottom).

  • Gousti Fruit10. March 2011, 20:38

    Sorry to be harsh (for once) but I don't see where you're going with the Speed Dial !? Ok, some cosmetic improvements, but where is the functionality ? No new feature ?
    I saw some video on "Panorama" for Firefox, *that* would be cool to manage dials, even bookmarks (whereas I don't see their point for managing tabs)...

  • minho10. March 2011, 20:40

    DSK-326573 (Respect the language choice made in the installer and change Opera's language)

    Not fixed here. My system is pt-br but installer uses pt (Portugal).

    win xp pro sp3

  • QuHno10. March 2011, 20:44

    Instant crash loop when trying to update the 2025 USB stand alone version, several crashlogs send.

    Clean USB install impossible for me too, something like: ... error initializing module 10 (locale)

    XPSP3

    edit: Not possible to install at all, doesn't matter if clean or not. I give in for today.

  • draco10. March 2011, 20:45

    Originally posted by scope66:

    http://i56.tinypic.com/rqyus0.png
    Emmm... no, thanks. (...)



    +1

    Good idea, but needs a lot of improovments...

    Originally posted by GoustiFruit:

    Strange problem: when I select/deselect (...)


    Confirmed. ;-(

  • Emanuele10. March 2011, 20:50

    Good enhancements! up

    Now is it planned a way for the user to customize the images used in Speed Dial ? After the editable titles this is a must bigsmile

  • inifiles10. March 2011, 20:51

    I have a Canadian French keyboard
    And I can't seem to be able to type the letter "è" (I copied it from somewhere else p)
    Instead, it appears like this "``"

  • Ricardo10. March 2011, 20:52

    Originally posted by minho:

    DSK-326573 (Respect the language choice made in the installer and change Opera's language)

    Not fixed here. My system is pt-br but installer uses pt (Portugal).

    win xp pro sp3

    I think that fix is related to the language of the last installation. Ex.: you installed in English, installer will detect and auto-select it.

    Here too, installer also starts in PT even when my system is pt-BR.

  • Jeroen Roovers10. March 2011, 20:52

    You fixed the plugin issues! Just when I was getting along fine finding out which sites do not support the video tag properly (youtube: some of the time, vimeo: fails, points you to a Safari or Flash download).

    ;-)

  • Haavard10. March 2011, 20:55

    Originally posted by BS-Harou:

    For some sites this new thumbnails looks really nice, but for some it looks much worse.

    Please try to be more specific when reporting problems.

  • Alexs10. March 2011, 20:56

    Please support for custom image/thumbnail in Speed dial!

    eg: right click on thumbnail → Edit → Image → Choose.

  • Crabman10. March 2011, 20:58

    Yeah, the new "smarter" preview generator for Speed Dial really doesn't work very good. giantbomb.com is another site where only one icon is used as the preview.

  • minho10. March 2011, 20:58

    Originally posted by haavard:

    Originally posted by BS-Harou:

    For some sites this new thumbnails looks really nice, but for some it looks much worse.

    Please try to be more specific when reporting problems.
    Add this site to your spedd dial http://globoesporte.globo.com/

  • loblo10. March 2011, 21:04

    The dragging of speed dial thumbnails is not as free as it was in previous build and this is very bad IMO.

  • mkr10. March 2011, 21:06

    On 2033 STILL CRASHING :/ On Wand Master Password

    After roll back to 2014 passwords disappears. Must bring back Opera AppData folder from backup :/

    rip rip rip bug

  • Haavard10. March 2011, 21:06

    Originally posted by minho:

    Add this site to your spedd dial
    http://globoesporte.globo.com/

    That seems to work as expected (it zooms in on the logo).

About this article

Published inDesktop Team blog
DateMarch 10, 2011
AuthorArjan van Leeuwen
Tagsthumbnails, speeddial, Plugins, Barracuda
OriginalInternet Archive

The Red O » Developers » Desktop Team blog » Your thumbnails, now prettier!

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