Opera's new 'fully agentic' browser can surf the web for you
It was only earlier this year Norway's Opera released a new browser, and now it's adding yet another offering to an already crowded field. Opera is billing Neon as a "fully agentic browser." It comes with an integrated AI that can chat with users and surf the web on their behalf. Compared to competing agents, the company says Neon is faster and more efficient at navigating the internet on its own due to the fact it parses webpages by analyzing their layout data.
Building on Opera's recent preview of Browser Operator, Neon can also complete tasks for you, like filling out a form or doing some online shopping. The more you use Neon to write, the more it will learn your personal style and adapt to it. All of this happens locally, in order to ensure user data remains private.
Additionally, Neon can make things for you, including websites, animations and even game prototypes, according to Opera. If you ask Neon to build something particularly complicated or time-consuming, it can continue the task even when you're offline. This part of the browser’s feature set depends on a connection to Opera's servers in Europe where privacy laws are more robust than in North America.
"Opera Neon is the first step towards fundamentally re-imagining what a browser can be in the age of intelligent agents," the company says.
If all of this sounds familiar, it's because other companies, including Google and OpenAI, have been working on similar products. In the case of Google, the search giant began previewing Project Mariner, an extension that adds a web-surfing agent to Chrome, last December. OpenAI, similarly, has been working on its own "Operator" mode since the start of the year.
Neon, therefore, sees Opera attempting to position itself as an innovator in hopes of claiming market share, but the company has a difficult task ahead. According to data from StatCounter, only about 2.09 percent of internet users use Opera to access the web. Chrome, by contrast, commands a dominant 66.45 percent of the market. That's a hard hill to climb when your competitors are working on similar features.
It's also worth asking if an agentic browser is something people really want. Opera suggests Neon is smart enough to book a trip for you. That sounds great in theory, but what if the agent makes an error and books the wrong connecting flight. A certain amount of friction ensures users pay attention and check things on their own.
If you want to try Neon for yourself, you can join the wait list.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/ai/operas-new-fully-agentic-browser-can-surf-the-web-for-you-145035874.html?src=rss
