Tag: Opera

Opera Now Resolves the .Crypto Top-Level Domain

Opera recently announced that its browser would start resolving .crypto addresses. The interesting thing about that is that .crypto is not an officially recognized ICANN top-level domain.

Rather it is the work of Unstoppable Domains which is an attempt to “replace cryptocurrency addresses with a human readable name.”

In an announcement of new updates to its browser, Opera wrote,

True crypto-geeks will appreciate the fact that Opera has also partnered with Unstoppable Domains, a blockchain naming system built on Ethereum.

Blockchain domain names are similar to .com or .org domains, the main difference being that they are stored on a decentralized public ledger (Ethereum). Registering .com or .org domains allows people to easily reach web addresses instead of having to type in a long IP address. A .crypto domain or wallet address works in much the same way, providing this experience on a blockchain. What this means in practice is that by owning a .crypto domain name, you can simplify your wallet address. Instead of sending someone a long set of numbers, you can use a short address like operafan.crypto, which makes it easier to send and receive cryptocurrencies in your wallet.

For those who don’t use Opera, there is a Chrome extension that will resolve the .crypto domain name space correctly within that browser as well.

Are Open Source Browsers Leaving Proprietary Ones in the Dust?

Nice roundup here and here on browser benchmarks suggesting that Firefox and Chrome are 3-4 times faster than the recently released Internet Explorer 8 RC 1. Opera fares better against Firefox/Chrome, but is still signficantly slower.

Yeah, that open source model will never work.

Of course, I doubt speed is the primary reason most of us use Firefox. I do have one suggestion, however, that might at least get me to use Internet Explorer more than once a month — either bring MSN Search into the 21st century or switch the default to Google.

Every so often I leave Internet Explorer open in my second monitor and before I realize I’m doing it, I pop in a search term and hit submit. I swear to god I think Alta Vista gave better results back in 1998 than MSN does today. The gap between what Google gives me vs. what MSN Search gives is like the difference between Pong and Far Cry.

Not to mention MSN Search’s design aesthetic seems to have been lifted from spam sites.

Everything about the IE user experience is just awful from beginning to end above and beyond any speed issue.