Opera showcases its concept web browser, Neon

Opera has showcased its first ever concept browser, codenamed Opera Neon. The new browser is built from the same browser engine as the Opera browser, and designed to allow users to focus on the content on the internet. Opera Neon will provide users new ways to interact with the web content, including the ability to drag and push things around, and to even pop content from the web.

The new user interface in Opera Neon includes:

• New start page using user’s current desktop background image
• A left sidebar with video player, image gallery, and download manager
• A new visual tab bar on the right side of the browser window, making it easier to distinguish the relevant tab
• A system which automatically manages tabs. Like gravity, frequently-used tabs will float to the top, while rarely-used tabs will sink to the bottom.
• A new omnibox, supporting top search engines and open search
• Video pop-out, which lets users continue to watch videos when on other web pages
• Snap to gallery - snapshot and crop any part of a web page and save to the gallery for later use.
• A split screen mode which allows for two pages to easily be opened and simultaneously used.

Opera Neon will not replace the current Opera browser. However, some of its new features are expected to be added to Opera this spring.