Opera 15 Takes The Opera Away

Opera 15 was released a few days ago at the time of this post, but lots of features are added and removed. Let's talk about the staying ones, the going ones, and the coming ones.

Staying: Speed Dial, Opera Menu (Windows)

Going: Bookmarks (given up in favor of Speed Dial), IRC, Mail, Notes, Webkit and Presto, Opera Link, etc.

Coming: Google Blink (the first official browser release to use Blink), Stash, Discover, Off-road Mode

Opera Software sacrificed many features, but Opera just started the Blink era and started their Chromium-based era. In other words, Opera will shrink even more, possibly losing to even Maxthon.\

Opera promises they will add more features to Opera to make up for the loss.

* NOTE: Opera Turbo is now Off-road Mode, which adds SPDY to make webpages even faster. *

* NOTE: Opera has just begun a rapid release cycle, following the likes of Firefox and Google Chrome. *

Extensions, however, are rapidly growing. Opera released a bookmarks manager if you miss bookmarks, Evernote made their product if you miss Notes, and more will be released.