[Q] Opera Mobile browser and the Google website? - Android Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I had recently switched over from HTC's stock browser to Opera Mobile browser and I'm loving it. It's much smoother and just feels better but something that was really well done in the stock browser is Google's site; really easy to use and looks and feels great. However, in Opera Mobile, it's a really bad, watered-down version that just looks ugly. Is there a way to get the good Google site to work on Opera Mobile?
Sent from my HTC Sensation using XDA App

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Try using Dolphin Mini, I found it to be smoother than opera mobile and the google website looks normal.
Sent from my HTC Glacier using XDA Premium App

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If what you meant is the normal black-bar-ed google then you have to change its user agent into desktop view and go to google.com. If it changed into your local google, just click Go to Google.com at the bottom. The page will stick and then you're free to bookmark it.
Sent from my HTC Desire HD using XDA App

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I tried Dolphin Mini and it was fast but not as smooth as Opera, which I'm still using but thanks for the suggestion.
I think I found the problem. When I go to Google.com on Opera, it goes to Google.com/pda but I want m.Google.com, the mobile version but I can't go there for some reason, I get an error and get redirected to another page.
Sent from my HTC-Z710a using XDA App

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I m having the same problem. I switched from Opera to Google browser for this reason. I m a heavy user of Google search. But when i come into Opera, as mentioned by OP, the page looks torn down.
Seems like Google Page has been crossed referenced / optimized with Google Android Browser to look and work flawlessly while others browsers dont "have the source codes" to make the page appear and function in optimized state.
MoeKz, have you tried Skyfire browser. I have tried Firefox, and its worse than Opera and Dolphin. Although in the coming years m sure it will lead out like desktop browser. But i cant wait that long eh.

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I'm having the same problem. I didn't like Dolphin Mini because it seemed like it waited until it had everything loaded before it actually showed me the page. I like for the text to pop up and then the images can slowly fill in.
I hate that I'm losing the Google search page. I liked how it had the extra buttons for places and the tabs across the top. *sad face*

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I've been trying to get this to work the past few days, the current webpage is extremely unappealing

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here is d solution!
its actually easy..
First, open up your standard android browser (not Opera), and browse to http://whatsmyuseragent.com.
It will give you your User Agent towards the top. It looks like this: Mozilla/5.0 Linux U Android 2.2.1 en-us SCH-I500 Build/MIUI AppleWebKit/533.1 KHTML, like Gecko Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1
Copy the whole thing and open Opera Mobile. Put opera:config in the URL bar and hit go. Scroll down to User Prefs (Second from the bottom) and tap on it. You will get a bunch of options. The one we're looking for is "Custom User Agent". Paste your copied UA into this text box, scroll to the bottom and hit save.
Now websites identify you as android browser n u get the same google.com , touch.facebook.com etc etc as it is i d stock browser....
should work in all phones...
P.S : this is only for Opera mobile n not for opera mini
hit THANKS button if this helps

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shreyasvb said:
its actually easy..
First, open up your standard android browser (not Opera), and browse to http://whatsmyuseragent.com.
It will give you your User Agent towards the top. It looks like this: Mozilla/5.0 Linux U Android 2.2.1 en-us SCH-I500 Build/MIUI AppleWebKit/533.1 KHTML, like Gecko Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/533.1
Copy the whole thing and open Opera Mobile. Put opera:config in the URL bar and hit go. Scroll down to User Prefs (Second from the bottom) and tap on it. You will get a bunch of options. The one we're looking for is "Custom User Agent". Paste your copied UA into this text box, scroll to the bottom and hit save.
Now websites identify you as android browser n u get the same google.com , touch.facebook.com etc etc as it is i d stock browser....
should work in all phones...
P.S : this is only for Opera mobile n not for opera mini
hit THANKS button if this helps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Will do, the resolution though is all wrong. I copied from Dolphin Browser.. Kinda removed the stock one already
Edit: t9 wrote Linda instead of Kinda.. Duh
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using XDA Premium App

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This helped for Facebook, which is nice but Google isnt working properly anymore. It's glitchy and shows the full site instead of a mobile version. Do you have any idea why that would happen?
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Out of look when it comes to a solution? :-(
Sent from my HTC Sensation Z710e using xda premium

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I would LOVE a solution to this. I really prefer Opera over Dolphin. Here are my observations:
1. The stock browser/Dolphin with an android UA/Opera with an android UA (sometimes) all display the "android" version of google.com and facebook.com.
2. When Dolphin with an Android UA is used, everything is directed to the correct version and scaled correctly on google/facebook...just like the Android browser (they're almost the same, no surprise there).
3. When Opera with an Android UA is used, going to facebook.com doesn't always direct to the "Android" version...sometimes it's the archaic/ugly version (and even that is scaled incorrectly). Going to touch.facebook.com goes to the new version, but it still displays weird (very evident on the dropdown menus). The google homepage is the "Android" version, but it's VERY messed up.
Conclusion: There's still something different about the way Opera interprets the pages, independent of the user agent.
Theories: Opera has a TON of settings that can be changed under about:config and I'm confident something can be done to get things to scale correctly. Someone more familiar with Android is going to need to solve this, because I can't figure it out.
This link looks like it has some good info, and I'd be willing to bet our solution is somewhere in there. Is there anyway to modify Opera to do the same things Dolphin/Android can? Something with "webview"?
Someone please help!

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I know this thread is old but I would like to find a solution. I have a galaxy note and am experiencing this issue. I have changed the custom user agent field but google does not render properly in opera. any suggestions?

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Did you try deleting cache or reinstalling Opera?

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West420 said:
Did you try deleting cache or reinstalling Opera?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes I did. Problem is Opera doesn't load the proper google mobile sight. When Changing the user agent to the same one the stock android browser use's the mobile sight is displayed but rendered wrong.

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Changing User Agent in Opera Mobile won't help.
Just Open www.google.com -> tap and hold search input box in the middle. (do it in Opera ofc)
dialog box will appear (chose something like "add search engine" ) -> now give it a name like GOOGLE DESKTOP or something .
Now In search box in Opera chose it as default (green tick)
That's it. Every time when You will use it, your results will be displayed on desktop version of google.

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a3plew said:
Yes I did. Problem is Opera doesn't load the proper google mobile sight. When Changing the user agent to the same one the stock android browser use's the mobile sight is displayed but rendered wrong.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Which rom/kernel are you using? Maybe you should post up a screenshot so we can compare it to others.
---------- Post added at 01:01 AM ---------- Previous post was at 12:59 AM ----------
HouseM said:
Changing User Agent in Opera Mobile won't help.
Just Open www.google.com -> tap and hold search input box in the middle. (do it in Opera ofc)
dialog box will appear (chose something like "add search engine" ) -> now give it a name like GOOGLE DESKTOP or something .
Now In search box in Opera chose it as default (green tick)
That's it. Every time when You will use it, your results will be displayed on desktop version of google.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
He should be able to simply scroll down to the bottom of the page where it gives the option of which version he would like to use (mobile/classic). That works perfectly fine for me using Opera Mobile.

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This problem persists in Opera Mobile 12.0.1.
Here are 3 screenshots of Google's mobile homepage accessed by the stock browser, Opera Mobile and Opera Mobile with the modified user agent.
{
"lightbox_close": "Close",
"lightbox_next": "Next",
"lightbox_previous": "Previous",
"lightbox_error": "The requested content cannot be loaded. Please try again later.",
"lightbox_start_slideshow": "Start slideshow",
"lightbox_stop_slideshow": "Stop slideshow",
"lightbox_full_screen": "Full screen",
"lightbox_thumbnails": "Thumbnails",
"lightbox_download": "Download",
"lightbox_share": "Share",
"lightbox_zoom": "Zoom",
"lightbox_new_window": "New window",
"lightbox_toggle_sidebar": "Toggle sidebar"
}
Note how the text overlaps the images in the screenshots on the right and the upper tabs are virtually non-existent. Most websites do render properly however but I still end up going back to stock browser when Opera gives me problems. I had this same issue with Opera on my PC which is why I stopped using it. This and Firefox are the only two browsers for Android that have their own rendering engines, the rest are just fancy shells (Dolphin, Miren, Maxthon, X-Scope, etc.) for the stock Webkit browser. Hopefully Opera will fix this since I prefer this in most cases to stock.
I have encountered another issue - modifying Opera Mobile's user agent has the consequence of locking it. I.E., you will no longer be able to toggle between mobile and desktop views in settings. You will have to go back to opera:config ->User prefs ->User Agent and press the 'default' button to remove it, then hit save and restart Opera.
Conclusion: Until Opera Mobile can fix the rendering of certain websites changing the user agent to a custom one is a waste of time. Use an alternate browser for the few websites I've come across that don't look right in Opera Mobile.
Samsung SGH-T959 stock Froyo.uvka6 rooted

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Ok, now I see what you mean. Opera Mobile does the same for me. I thought you were trying to get the desktop version.