I use opera for nearly 11 years and it’s a great browser. I noticed however that only advanced users like it. And sadly it also has it’s major flaws, like terribly slow javascript engine (and i don’t mean benchmark tests – ex. try to scroll some page in opera and different browsers – it’s not smooth, and i have 8GB RAM, ramdisk cache, and Quad Core!!!). The reason of disliking Opera, is that people doesn’t use advanced features it offers. Opera was originaly made for disabled people (voice synth, ability to zoom pages [not expanding text size, but actually zooming all page], mouse gestures [ex. left mouse button + right mouse button -> next page, or changing tabs with right click + roll], one key shortcuts [originaly disabled, but can be activated], and many, many more). Chrome is faster in rendering pages, but try to watch 10 pages of google search in less than 10 sec. In Opera it’s just [space][space][lmb+rmb]x10, and you don’t have to move your mouse even for 1 inch.
PS. Btw. Chrome is sending user statistics to Google. I personally advise you to switch to SRWare Iron. it’s also based on Chromium engine, but without all that Google s**t.