Opera Design

Opera with search bar.

And without search bar. Little difference someone will say?
But why we would have something if we don't need it.

Now i will explain why Opera without serach bar by default placed on foreground UI is better Opera.
We have address bar who do almost same thing like search bar. There are few minor differences and problems from wich lot Opera users are afraid of, but realy Opera looses nothing with using address bar as search bar on the other side he gets space in address bar for one cool future.

So you can in address bar type your search keywords and by pressing enter you will get your search results in that window. Exactly like you typed in this small Search bar who just stays there without any reason, and making unneded mess. Cleaner look and same usability, why not?

But as I have mentioned before there are few problems. First if someone is using two, tree or more search engines. And second if someone want his search to be opened in new tab.

Second problem actualy don't have a solution, it's solved already. It's quite faster to press ctrl+t and then type your search in address bar. Keep in mind that you are by opening new tab already positioned to type into address bar. And for users who are not using shorcuts it's same fast to press "+" like clicking into search bar. But don't forget we got cleaner look. Opera have mouse gestures too for users who are comfortable with them, and they can fast open new tab by holding right mouse button and moving mouse down.

For first problem we have solution partitialy - search keywords. Opera have pregenerated few search keywords but you can make as many as you want to. You can find search customization menu in "menu/settings/preferences/search(tab)", there you can add or edit search engines. And you can edit keyword for every single search engine. So how they work? If for "http://www.google.com/" you have keyword "g", by typing g and pressing space in your address bar he automaticaly switch to search with Google. So if for "http://www.bing.com/" you have b keyword and you wish to search with Bing you will type b, press space and you are searching with Bing. It's that simple.

But what if some user is not aware of search keywords? I will suggest same solution like in IE 9 but placed differently. We got huge address bar now right? So I suggest Opera use this huge space for engine switch icons. User will easily recognize what for are they. And this will look so:

Visual choose search engine in Opera's address bar

Are you for removing Search Bar from deafult UI? Pelase comment.

Vladimir Krstic