If you use Opera, you can now officially open certain websites by typing emojis in the address bar. The Web browser has just deployed in its latest update this rather original function made possible thanks to a partnership with the Y.at platform, which specializes in redirecting Web pages.
Y.at is a service that allows you to create, for a fee, personalized URLs using only a suite of emojis. The owners of these original web addresses can then redirect them to URLs of their choice. By working hand in hand with Y.at, Opera becomes the first web browser capable of opening URLs made up of emojis.
For the more curious, Opera gives several examples of “emofiified” URLs owned by celebrities, including Lil Wayne who displays this URL on his Twitter account (y.at/??), DJ Steve Aoki (y.at/??) or the British electro group Disclosure (y.at/???).
If until now these special URLs had to be preceded by the mention “y.at” to work, the integration with Opera makes it possible to be freed from it. So you can type ?? directly into Opera’s address bar to go to Lil Wayne’s page.
Similarly, as soon as a user’s Yat is displayed on a web page, Opera recognizes it and can directly open the page to which it is attached.
For Opera, this new function is supposed to offer a new way to access pages without having to type alphanumeric characters. Not sure, however, that remembering a series of emojis is easier than memorizing a good old URL made up of numbers and letters.
Source: Opera