Opera Mini’s rendering of online videos is, to put it mildly, pathetic. The analogy to give for Skyfire would be that it’s the ‘Google Chrome’ to the world of mobile web browsers. And like the search giant, ht refuses to get rid of the of the ‘beta’ tag at the end of each product release and update.

Skyfire’s rendering of video is magnificent, especially since has the latest Flash plug-in built into it’s architecture and also comes with Microsoft’s Silverlight and Apple QuickTime plug-ins (that’s right, no extra download). Videos from YouTube, Hulu, MetaCafe and even some major site like Rediff load without any issue whatsoever.

What’s more, the browser even allows you to download some of these video files! For a bell phone where data costs are always an issue, that’s very handy feature to have. And yes, this ability is extended to some audio files as well.

As is evident, the focus on Web 2.0 takes center stage with skyfire. The home screen itself is the proof of this, with a window that displays four tabs: RSS Feeds, Search, Bookmarks and History.

The first tab with the RSS is where the browser shines. It automatically integrates feeds from several popular sites (Google News, Yahoo News, YouTube, Digg, Hulu etc.) and also combines two of the most popular social networking services – Twitter and Facebook. Of Course, you will have to log in to avail of the latter two, but it’s an absolute treat to use. And this is only bolstered by the addition of a little text bar on top that lets you update your status on the fly.

The Search Tab is basically a directory of popular services, while Bookmarks and History are self-explanatory.

Mile Google Chrome, Skyfire has added a ‘superbar’ av the top – a URL, address bar that doubles up as a search bar.

And taking a few tips from Opera Mini, it has also thrown in a remote server to compress the data and an engine that fits a desktop-style web page to a mobile screen.

Skyfire doesn’t support as many devices as Opera Mini does, but I recommend you install both on your Nokia N97 or any other Smartphone if it is so compactible. Use Opera Mini for your regular browsing and skyfire for all your Web 2.0 needs.

Skyfire sadly supports Symbian V3 smartphones only that is it won’t work in Nokia N97 currently but the good news is Skyfire team has started Alpha testing Skyfire for Symbian V5 smartphones like Nokia 5800, Nokia N97 etc. So I think we can expect it in two months.