Opera

Opera...is hailed as ....''the fastest browser on earth''

in my experience I do feel it that way.

in recent days specially the users of XP had been facing more attacks of viruses with IE and when I was feeling like its getting really impossible to control the menace....opera sang a sweet song before my ears.

i have been using it since it had released the 6th version and now I think version 8.51 is the latest one...

every next day I am becoming a bigger fan of opera.....the attachment has grown in such an extent that when I find a website is not compatible with opera I dont curse pera , rather I curse the website and go to the snail browser, infested with bugs...oh... was meaning IE actually...lol

when google came up with the much hyped gmail...i was disappointed to find that it was not compatible with opera and I even wrote mail to the google team.of course similar hues and crys were heard from all parts of the globe and google soon rectified the mistake.unfortunately, still now important email providers famous in this subcontinent still are not very much compatible with opera...like indiatimes or rediff.even certain features of yahoomail are not compatible with opera.

certain secure websites like the iconnect site of UTI bank did not open at all with the browser.Thus I am feeling this noncompatibility is becoming a bigger issue with the software these days.What surprises me more is that if opera is so famous why these famous website providers do not take it into consideration while testing their site?

one thing I noticed as well, although I am not very sure, I felt java pages work a lil less smoothly with opera.

oh...... a new feature of opera is that its voice command. although I did not test it extensively,it gave a satisfactory result at a glance.

in one review I was reading that for the reviewer opera never crashed, but it did so in my case a few times.

but what I love in opera is the ease of its operation, and the mouse jestures.just press the right button and drag the mouse a lil towards left, the browser page goes back.its extremely easy.But while doing a tabbed browsing , there is apparently no keyboard shortcuts to select different tabs.its a major difficulty I face sometimes.

But opera never got afected by any virus. I should say thats one of the best features of this virus. may be in future as it gains more popularity, it will also lure the code writers to design their codes to attack the opera.

other wise ,simply its the best.i worked with IE, netscape, mozilla, firefox, konquerer,epiphany.but still opera is my favourite,even I use it while surfin through linux.

dudes, want a safe, smooth surfing experience without a shark attack? try singing opera.

I've just spent an interesting few days trying to get the Opera I purchased for USD 39 to perform acceptably. And when it didn't, I tried to avail myself of the Premium Support my USD 39 entitled me to.

You see, I was laboring under the assumption that since Opera Software was a .com and charged money for their unencumbered, fully supported software, that I was not dealing with an open source, contributor staffed organization.

Well excepting the money that changed hands, all other transactions were completely ala open-source-org.

I dealt exclusively with one Technical Service Consultant, Opera Software. Now he has a very straightforward approach to paid support. He never burdened either me or himself with queries about my system or environment. He never embarrassed me with questions about my level of expertise. He never even bothered to clutter my email with lengthy explanations or possible solutions. His approach was, as I said, straightforward. He simply referred me to FAQ links, or tersely committed non-committal. At one point in my queries to understand how to get certain basic functionalities from the mail included in Opera (which, btw, are often supplied by unsupported 3rd party software), he informed me that if I didn't like the mail in Opera, I didn't have to use it!

The last straw came when Opera would not recognize the Adobe plugin on my system, no matter what I tried, even the FAQ solutions didn't work. Despite all efforts, it still downloaded the pdf files (not temporarily as others do) and then opened Adobe and turned the system over to it.

We went back and forth several times over this. I even tried downloading other browsers to illustrate that they either would or would not recognize the plugin. They did. And, I might add, without having to go through the gyrations the FAQ from Opera proposed.

His final query was, well was I interested in discussing technical issues or solving my problem. I informed him that my problem was solved. I had trash canned Opera!

I requested a refund, but haven't heard anything. Based on the technical support, I don't envision the sales support to be of any higher calibre, and I don't expect to ever see my USD 39 again.

The fastest.....the strongest

Opera is supposed to be the fastest browser on the Earth. It may be true even if I have not been able to find much difference in speed between Opera and Firefox. The other two browsers Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator doesn't even seem to be in the same league.

The other browsers are easily caught by errors and the speed never seemed to impress me. In the last few years almost all the errors my PC had seemed to start with Internet Explorer. I wonder if anyone would go for it if it was not given for free with Windows OS.

In lots of sites, if you are using IE, you will see the right click option disabled, but not in Opera. Even if you try stopping the data transfer in the middle of loading a page, you can still see all the text with the exemption of pictures which are loaded only after the written text.

Thus if you want to read only the text in some sites which got high graphics, Opera can help you a lot in saving precious time. Even the Hard Disc space taken by Opera is much less.

A talkative browser?

Opera 8 got a voice recognition facility in it which helps us to use some of the simple commands like ''back'', ''''forward'', ''page up'', ''page down'', ''help'' etc, each command beginning with a name, usually ''Opera'' or ''Browser''. Opera requires additional files, a plugin to enable this voice option and it will cost you approximately 10.5MB of HDD space.

The download size of this plugin may sound odd as the Opera setup was only 3.59MB in total. Considering the difficulty in making the computer understand what we are saying, it may be better to use the mouse and not the mouth. You may also need to download Java seperately to get the full advantage out of this browser.

Extra features

You need to have a serial if you doesn't want the ad to appear on the top of the browser. But that will stay there and will not create any problem. Opera 8 has gone long way from Opera 6, the version which got maximum popularity, but most still use that old version, may be due to the stability and user friendliness and Opera 8 is only a beta version. It can be downloaded at any time from https://opera.com or any other software sites too.

There is also a wand option, which can activated by clicking or using ctrl+enter automatically inserting a password which was earlier saved. The zoom in and zoom out options are really helpful and so are the skins which can be downloaded from the site. But as usual, the default skin is a real good one and there may not be a need to go for a new one. The pop-up control is really good too.

Special features

Opera gives the option of using different mouse gestures for different actions. It can store about 10,000 visited addresses and it downloads at a higher speed than download accelerator on some occasions. If not affectes by external factors, it completes a download on a regular speed without any fluctuation.

But it won't give any support to DAP as IE does. But it has the facility to resume those downloads which are interrupted, which was impossible if downloaded using the default IE downloader.

The e-mail facility of Opera is not upto the mark and some of the sites may not support Opera, just like the Yahoo avatars doesn't. These sites seems to be designed only for Internet Explorer, but considering the fact the Opera and Mozilla users may be more than the IE users, it doesn't sound too good. Opera's advanced search in Google, Amazon, Ebay etc gives it even more advantage.

What I found most interesting was that Opera can disguise as Internet Explorer or Mozilla. Well, IE doesn't even stand a chance now with both Opera and Firefox leading the game. Mozilla seems to be more widely used among the linux users because it is the default browser in most of the versions along with Konquerer browser.

IE can rest in pieces

Opera just got better looks than any other browser. It's look just suits XP while all other browsers seem to make me remember about Windows 98. If I remember it right, it was the option to delete the private data in one click was what attracted me to Opera. Now you can list through the History window of Opera and delete only the selected ones that you find inappropriate!

The fact is that whenever I go to a site in IE and find some kind of error, I simply copy the link and paste it in Opera and it may work better! Having multiple browsers is always an advantage as I keep Opera and Firefox open most of the time. Even if Firefox is a good choice, it seems that Opera may be a slightly better choice, even if my love for them is just the same.

After using Opera, just don't hesitate to ask what made IE a browser? - it can't even open different tabs in one window! They can be extremely glad that they are giving it for free with the OS! I think that it is decreasing the quality of Windows - Linux provides even better browsers!

THANKS FOR READING THE REVIEW. THE COMMENTS ARE NOT COMPULSARY, BUT THEY ARE ALSO NOT OPTIONAL, AS IT DEPENDS ON THE CIRCUMSTANCES.....

How many times have you complained that right-click is not working on Mouthshut? How many times have you tried to select some text of a review and it won?t select? You see, the webmasters of Mouthshut are smart! But I can say with a wink ;-) that they are not brilliant. And trust me, after reading this review, they too will wake up to reality and see to it that what I am going to write here does not happen again.

The answer to both the questions I have posed above can be found in Opera browser. You may encounter the problem of right-click in Internet Explorer (definitely) and to a lesser extent in Netscape/Mozilla. But you will not find right-clicking difficult in Opera.

So now you may ask me, what's so special about Opera that Mouthshut works perfectly fine here? I say that no, Mouthshut doesn't work fine in Opera. In fact, Mouthshut has been designed to work best in Internet Explorer and Netscape by the webmasters. But they forgot about Opera. I am sure they wouldn't have even remembered about it since this browser is hardly used by anyone in this age of competition between Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

The scripts being used by Mouthshut work best in IE and Netscape. The scripts do not take into account Opera. My guess is also that it is a bit difficult to create scripts tailor-made for Opera since a very small number of people use it worldwide. It is thanks to Opera that I have been able to download the script that works behind most pages of Mouthshut.

What is OPERA?

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Well, in this highly competitive world of browser technologies, there are basically three different types of browsers that exist today - Microsoft owned Internet Explorer, the Open-Source project Mozilla and Opera Softwares owned Opera browser. The features available in Opera are much the same as those found in Firefox or Mozilla 1.7. It supports tabbed browsing, has built in email and chat clients, supports a broken download manager and has virtually all the goodies of Firefox.

However, Opera is different from Firefox in one way. Project Mozilla is open-source while the free versions of Opera are ad-supported. You get small advertisements at the top of your browser window from Google-syndication (similar to the ones that you see on all pages of Mouthshut). You can eliminate these advertisements by purchasing the ad-free version from their website ( http://www.opera.com). But you don't need to worry, because the advertisements are downloaded silently in your browser window and they do not affect the speed of downloads of the webpages.

Opera can be identified both as Internet Explorer and Mozilla. What this means is that when a Web browser connects to a Web site, it tells the Web site which browser it is. Some Web sites provide content tailor-made for particular browsers. Because browsers are in constant development, assumptions made by page designers may not have the intended effect. Hence a Web page that may be viewed easily in (say) IE may not be viewable in Opera. All you need to do is change a quick setting so that Opera identifies to the web site as IE. Of course, the interface of Opera will not change for the intended user.

Opera Softwares claim that this is the world?s fastest web-browser. No wonder! What they say is entirely correct. This is because the algorithms written for Opera are such that it downloads the text from a webpage first and then downloads the multimedia content. You can also block image files from being downloaded (if you desire so) and that will improve the download speed considerably. The 'wand' button will take care of all your passwords and personal information. You can manage all your cookies through the cookie manager.

I have used Opera since version 6.0. It was not a very impressive one (though a step in the right direction). It did support the concept of tabbed-browsing which was a relatively new concept at the time and others were only trying to catch on. This old version always looked like a highly technical window where each webpage looked different in comparison to Netscape or IE. The latest version is 7.54, which is actually brilliant. The web pages mostly do not look any different from what they may look like in IE or Mozilla.

The built-in pop-up blocker comes in handy most of the times. What is especially useful to me is the built-in search toolbar from where I can search the Internet using Google, Amazon, Ebay, Download.com, Google news or Google groups. It supports skins that can be downloaded from https://my.opera.com/customize/skins/

Recently heard that they have launched a new beta version 8.0 and it supports voice commands too. This means that now you can not only click buttons from your mouse, but also as an alternative, pass a voice command for the same. Sounds cool. Isn't it?

Overall, this browser is one of the browsers for the future. If your choice is Firefox, then it is a good one. But do try Opera. It is fun to work with. It?s a pity that we cannot junk Internet Explorer forever.

Where do I begin?. Ok, here it goes. Opera has been around for really long, I have been using it on and off from version 6.0 I guess. But with the new firefox browser in market, I lost of track of Opera recently. But going through some tech magazines I found this article about opera and voice. Voice commands in a browser, come on you can't be serious. But I thought what the hell, let me download and try this one too. Man, was I in for a surprise!!.

I got the beta from http://www.opera.com, checked it out. It had all the regular features that you can expect from a latest browser - tabbed browsing, Pop-up blocker, pop mails, chat, google search next to address path etc. But all that was a no brainer. But the two things that impressed me were : Voice and RSS feeds.

First thing I wanted to know was, how do I get the voice feature working. There is a voice button in the toolbar, or you can set it up from tools - preferences - voice. It was real fun after that. I didnt change any settings first and looked up the voice help. Just say '' opera voice commands'', it opens the voice commands page. I checked the voice commands present, started out with a couple of simple ones, like ''opera back'', ''opera forward'' etc, if there you are a pretty quiet room, it works flawlessly. I was amazed. There is a password manager (called as wand) for sites that require logon. I have my yahoo mail stored and all I have to say is ''opera login'' and the browser logs me in. Fantastic !!, isnt it?. There are like lots of commands present in the list still learning to use all of them, but this is real cool, and shows us all as to what the future has in store for us.

Now to the second feature the RSS feeds. To the non-geeks out there, who live a normal living outside the internet, its Really Simple Syndication (RSS). There are a lot of news sites that support this type of news feeds, all you have to do is click on the rss button in any of these sites and you will get subscribed to all those news links. Say for example go to http://www.cnn.com, in the bottom of the page you have a link that says RSS headlines, just click on that link and it provides a list of news source from CNN, all you have to do is click on that link and you will get all the headlines and a brief description of the news in your browser without actually going into the site. If you are interested in further reading that story, you can click on that link and get the full details. Cool isn't it?. There are lots of RSS aggregators present in the market, but opera comes integrated with one, so there is no need to install one separately. Nice touch eh!.

There are other lots of cool stuff in the browser, like developing your own stylesheets to change the font size and layouts. Skins etc. Did I tell you about the mouse gestures. (did I say 2 features earlier, no its three) That is fantastic too. There are like a hundred different options based on my mouse movements, with mouse click in combinations with ctrl key etc. These can be used to open in new window, zoom in, zoom out, duplicate page, copy, paste and what not.

Now coming to the cons, its not a freeware, yes adware based, uses google syndication to present based ads based on the pages you visit. And the voice interface is not perfect yet, but who cares this is some real innovation and every software takes its time become stable, I am sure it will get better in the future versions (This is beta afterall). Thatz it folks, I will keep posting additions to these as I find out some more cool features. Please post your comments.

Cheers.

I had been using Internet Explorer for quite some time now but somehow never found it satisfactory enough. It did not have in-built pop-up blocking (although the version 6.0 which comes with Windows XP SP2 does have it!), no tabbed browsing, no native email client and was a bit unstable. Then I switched to myIE2 web browser which was much of the same (or worse).

Opera (I'm currently using Version 7.6 Preview 2) is a very fast browser and can render pages with almost twice the speed of Internet Explorer.Its easy to install with minimal effort required. It has ''M2'', its native Email client which is (for me atleast) a refreshing change from Outlook Express, and has an uncluttered, highly organised interface. It supports POP3 and IMAP and I had no trouble setting up GMAIL to work with it.

Opera itself is almost half the size of most browsers available but has twice their features!

Allows to save the current state and resume the next time (Somewhat like the HIBERNATE feature in Windows 2000 and up)

Own Password manager for easy password storage and retrieval

Pop-Up blocking with user defined options (4)

Chat Client-Connects to IRC Servers and can be used to send files also

Large selection of Panels available-Contacts,Bookmarks,History,Links,Transfers,Windows,Search,Notes,Info Panels

Can resume an interrupted download with its own Download Client integrated with it as Transfers Panel

Contents in Webpages (Text) can be stored as notes for later use

Integrates search toolbar-can search Google,Amazon,Ebay,Downloads.com,Google Groups etc.

Zoom function for Web Pages available

Shift+F11 lets you view the page in Small Screen rendering (as it will be seen in Handhelds running Opera)

Can directly access WAP/WML content

Movements of the mouse (Mouse Gestures) can be used to perform various functions

and much much more...

It is quite evident that Opera in itself is a complete internet suite which has a remarkably high level of efficiency.

But, versions earlier than the 7.6 do NOT support Gmail.

ChrysatusAuratus, THANKS FOR THE INFO THAT I HAD MISSED OUT!

I had never liked Internet Explorer from the time when I got a net connection, some time way back in '97-98. I used to use Netscape Navigator then, which was pretty fast and stable. I had always thus used Netscape... 3, 4, 4.5, 6, 7 and 7.1.

Suddenly someone told me about this browser called 'Opera'. I had actually knew about it much before, and had also gave it a try when it was in a buggy state. But after downloading Opera 7.50, my opinions changed about the browser.

Speeeeeeeeeeeeeeeed

Opera is all about speed. Good efficient coding reflects in the speed with which webpages are downloaded and displayed. It downloads the important text portions first, and then downloads the formattings, thus letting us to go through the page faster than Netscape and of course IE, would. It also supports pipelining, and can make around 128 connections to a website at a time.

Safety and Privacy

It is a real safe browser. No code loopholes, an inbuilt pop-up blocker that blocks unwanted popups depending on user's choice, cookie deleter that can delete stored cookies upon exit, cache deleter which deletes cached pages and images, storing wand passwords with a master password......... its all in it.

UI

It has a cool and neat user interface. New webpages can be opened in tabbed windows within one window, rather than opening them in separate windows. The web elements - radio buttons, check boxes, text boxes... all gets a new style with its built in default style sheet.

Keyboard Shortcuts

Browsing the web without the mouse is an added advantage for Opera. Simple keyboard shortcuts allows one to open webpages, perform searches in various search engines, cycle through opened webpages, go back, go forward, etc.

Mouse Gestures

Opera includes a feature called Mouse Gestures. By simply clicking and moving the mouse in different directions, different actions can be done.

Additional Features

Opera has many more additional features, such as typing 'g' and whatever you want to search for, would open Google's search results page. Many more search engines can be configured. Bookmarks are well managed too. There's a contact section, where you can store your contact's information; a Notes section, where you can type out notes which you can later insert into textboxes; a Download Manager, where you can monitor your downloads.

Additionally, it also has a built in Mail Client and Chat Client included within it. The zoom function is also splendid. It can also emulate other browsers such as text-based browsers and the like.

But despite of these many factors, many websites still doesn't support Opera...I just dunno why.

Whatever it may be, Opera will surely rule the browser segment one day.

Wow.. I didn’t know Opera browser had so many admirers. Well, I’ve been using this since its Version 3 (current version is 7.xx)… and its only getting better.

When my 486 PC started complaining about IE4’s misuse of its limited resources, I looked around for other options. I had started getting accustomed to Lynx browser (the Text mode browser. No mouse. No graphics. Just plain text).. and fortunately I found Opera. (I think it was Opera 3.08). What fascinated me was that, on my system, it loaded faster than MS-Word. !! That was the beginning of this long journey. I’ve tried every Opera release since then and am currently using 6.03 (‘cos I’d found some bug in 7.0 .. and haven't yet tried the later 7.xx releases)

The other reviews have very well explained a lot of things about this magnificent browser. So, I’ll keep this review short by talking about only those features that they’ve missed. (or did I miss reading them).

How could anybody miss out Mouse Gestures!! This was introduced in version 4 (or was it even earlier?).. and since then, I’ve forgotten using toolbar buttons for – Back, Forward, Minimise, Close, etc.

•Clicking Right mouse button immediately followed by left button.. is equivalent of pressing <Back> button.

•Clicking Left mouse button immediately followed by right button.. is equivalent of pressing <Forward> button.

•Holding the right mouse button down & moving the mouse in certain shapes (mostly L or I) can accomplish the following:

o Open a new window.

o Close the current window.

o Minimise the window.

o Maximize the window.

o Go to parent folder (useful when browsing ftp or other sites that display directory structure)

Also, there’s a lot one can do by using a combination of Keyboard & mouse. Like, when Clicking on a link, if <Shift> is pressed, the link opens up in a new window. If <Ctrl>+<Shift> is pressed, the new window opens in background (i.e., new window doesn’t steal focus and you can continue seeing the same window that you clicked).

If using a scroll mouse, pressing <Ctrl> while scrolling will Increase/Decrease the Zoom. (I think this is a Windows OS feature… as it works in MS word also).

All those annoying pop-up ads can be disabled with total ease. Pressing <F12> will bring up a small menu where you can select what you wish to do with those automatic pop-up windows.

Another good thing about Opera is its Stealth mode. (naa.. its just my idiotic usage of words). The same <F12> menu offers options where you can make Opera identify itself as Netscape or IE. i.e., if some site is stupid enough not to allow other browsers, then Opera can fool the website into believing that you are using IE or Netscape.

Yet another goodie about Opera is its “Continuous Browsing” feature. Suppose, you are in the middle of some browsing session.. and you had to close Opera or restart your PC.!!!! NO PROBLEMS at all. Next time you open Opera, you’ll see all your browsing windows are opened and are pointing at the same place where you had them when you closed opera. Now.. how much longer should we wait for IE to get this feature.. (IE5 and IE6.. two major releases.. and they still don’t feel this feature is useful). What more, the same is applicable when some application/website crashes Opera in the middle of a browsing session.

Generally, people spend more time searching for things than on browsing the links given in the search results. Opera makes this searching a little easier. You don’t need to wait till the google home page loads to type in your search criteria. All you need to do is type g “one or more” search strings in the Address bar (where you type the URL)… and VOILA!! Immediately you get a page with your search results.!!!! Now, g is for google. You can use a for AllTheWeb, l for Lycos, s for Super, z for Amazon.com, etc. etc. etc. However, these websites are fixed. We can’t customize this to websites of our choice :-(

All in all a great browser that allows hundreds of customizations. Seriously, if one were to try out all the possible options allowed by Opera, it would take months or maybe even years. (well.. I’ve to admit I’m not done exploring all that it has to offer even though I’ve been using it for 4 years now)

One downside that i'd like to mention is that there are no default plugins for quite a few filetypes. You will need to find 'em on the web. However, the good news is, all plugins that work with Netscape.. also work with Opera.

Happy browsing.

-S.

I have been using Internet Explorer for a long time as a browser of choice. No doubts it is a great browser, it supports all the necessary protocols, has very good standards support and because it comes from the Microsoft stable is very well integrated with the Windows OS. So what made me look for a new browser? I am a software developer by profession and am into developing web applications. One of the primary objectives while developing a web application for consumption of the internet audience is to ensure that it works fairly well with almost all versions of different browsers. So one day just to run some tests to figure out how compatible my application was with Opera , I downloaded the adware supported version (6.5 I think it was). The download was smooth and there are many mirrors to choose from. Installation was even simpler - its a point and click affair that requires very minimal user intervention. Once installed I fired it up and was immediately surprised by the startup time. It was blazing fast. I am not talking about browsing speeds here, it is just that the browser initializes very quickly. As I started browsing through different sites I was even more surprised by the elan with which this little known browser would fetch the pages and display them. Its been more than a year since then. I have bought a registered version of Opera (in fact two of them one for my Windows OS and the other for LINUX). Opera continues to pleasantly surprise me everyday with its feature list and increase in robustness/stability with each new version in the market. I am sure I wont be doing this review a justice. Its practically impossible to write about all the features that opera has. The attention to details is just incredible and I must say they are real innovators.

Pros

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1. Integrated Mail Client (M2): This is something that offers the same functionality as say of outlook express. This is a mail and news client from opera and has a radically new paradigm for storing(sorting) your emails. This supports pop3, IMAP, News, SMTP type of accounts. I use Yahoo and Lycos POP3 accounts and M2 works with these seamlessly. The client automatically

1.manages your contact list

2.sorts emails based on who it comes from, if it contains an attachment etc.

3.Lets you define rules and filters

1. Has a powerful Spam detection mechanism that learns as you mark incoming messages as Spam.

2. Tabbed browsing: You can open many pages within the same window and thus the experience of browsing multiple pages is greatly enhanced.

3. Sessions: If you have lets say 10 pages open and for some reason need to get back to these pages at later point in time, you can save the entire set of open pages as a session. You can open these sessions when you need to.

4. Look and Feel: Skinning support is fabulous. You can make it look and behave it just the way you prefer. Many free skins are available for download.

5. Mouse Gestures: Simply put this means that you can navigate(equivalent to using the back and forward button) by just using your mouse. You can even teach your mouse a few new tricks.

6. Spatial navigation: In IE you can just go from one link to another using the TAB key. In opera you go navigate in all four directions.

7. The greatest benefit perhaps is complete control over your browsing habits. You can customize almost every element that makes up opera (keyboard mappings, toolbars, menus, hotlist items) etc.

8. Zoom: Opera lets you zoom a page to as great/less an extent you want to.

9. It also supports every standard of web browsing and is very secure.

10. The most touted feature is of course speed. And boy, is it fast!

11. Pop Blocking: You get four options for the pop ups : Accept them, Refuse them, open them in background, only open requested pop-ups.

12. Support from opera 's customer service department is fabulous. I had one trivial problem with M2 and they helped me sort it out quickly.

Cons

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1. Opera crashes maybe once a month, but I can live with that.

2. The adware supported version takes up a lot of screen space.

The name might be a little funny and not the traditional and weird name picked from the IT books and sci-fi movies. but what does the name matter once your start using the browser. all we want is something to surf the net with and at reach that particular page we are looking for on the same day. well opera will give it to you in seconds. before I start off with the review it is better if I notify all of you that I am not a computer whizz!! so this would be more from the views of and average person(sorry guys no technical details...that stuff sends my head into a dizzying spin).

for the past couple of years IE was the only browser known to me and I wish I hadnt even known the damn thing. for those years I had been battling errors regarding illegal operations,not enough memory to runwhen I had plenty left and plus not to mention the all time microsoft error winner browser hanging.gosh are they known for that. for all those years I have been playing hangman patiently with the browser until one fine day I just blew my top and almost sent a fist into the CPU cabinet. but there was a saviour. pinching one of my cousins complimentary CD from the Digit magazine I began to explore the software portion and found exactly what I was looking for. there in bold letters was the word opera and next to it in highlighted letters was the word install

in want of a replacement for IE, without knowing anything about the history of the browser I installed my first version which was Opera 6.0.with fingers crossed I clicked on the shortcut on the desktop and to my surprise I was zipping on the net at breakneck speeds and I my frustration was overcome with a huge sense of relief(not that relief!! yeee gods).1 hour later opera had become an addiction. the speed and the efficiency of the browser had me drooling all over it. the fat lady now slowly sang for IE and I wasnt even reluctant to give it up.

Layout-

the layout of the browser isnt complicated at all and simple enough for a beginner to use .the top end of the browser has the some of the usual options as Ie but there are also a few extras that feature seperate bars for searches on amazon,Ebay and and everybody's favourite Google.there is also and option to magnify the page your viewing upto a 1000% of the normal size. the free version of opera comes with an advertisement bar on the top right hand coner. but unlike the days of the caltigre's free connections this does not hinder the speed of the connection and thus you still find yourself zipping through your pages with relative ease.

the bottom of the browser like windows has its own seperate task bar. thus you can minimize your browser pages to that task bar rather than cramming up your windows one. the foreground and back ground skins can also be changed to suit your preferance. when you are accessing a page a tiny bar appears at the bottom which tell you the speed at which it is processing, the total memory of the page and the percentage of the page that has loaded and not to forget the status of the appearing page.i guess this will do for all you perfectionists out there.

Features-

nothing too different from Ie but it does have one feature that I love the most.The Pop Up Killer(die die die!!! heheh!!!) for those nasty annoying pop ups that you just want to blow with a shotgun. the browser also comes with and email client that have failed to figure out for quite sometime. there is also another feature that comes in handy. at the beginning, before the browser loads(that is when you access it from your computer) and option box pops up. it gives you the option to return to the page you were surfing sometime back, start a new blank page or go directly to your home page. it comes in handy when you cancel your browser by mistake and want to get back to last page you were on, especially when you dont remember the address.

the rest of the features I havent really taken a look at actually as I was manage to screw up something or the other with my bubbling curiousity.

User Friendly?

now comes the question lurking in the minds of all you out there.is it user friendly? definitely! is the answer. there isnt anything complicated about the brower. It is an Ie browser with no problems, no errors, no hanging problems and very fast. I guess the extra search bars to different search engines allow multiple searches and the best part is that its all done fast.

now is that internet service provider of yours giving you a slow and pathetic connection? yes like that damn VSNL dialup that I use!! well then this browser is hardly affected by that. Ie only works efficiently when the your service provider gives you a connection with the peak speed. on mine the maximum is 49,333bps.but I rarely get that .my connections will vary from 21,000bps to 42,667bps.not too good I know and good enough to get you those page cannot be displayed errors with Ie. but with opera its sails through. I dont know how and dont ask me why!! but im happy with it and im enjoying it.another plus point about opera is that the browser can even be used with the keyboard.

Any Downside it?-

sure everything has a downside to it these days, nothing comes perfectly fine. I have so far only experienced two problems compared to the numerous with Ie.the first one is trying to figure out that email client. but it isn’t relevent. the second one can be a pain at times.Opera at times does run in to a few problems with the Java part of it.so all you people who love playing those games online will have to do it on Ie. since I rarely do it doesnt affect me at all.

What Do I Think?-

the browser is lovely to surf the net with, the speed and efficiency of the browser makes it an addiction to any internet addict.the problems are minimal and so that vein wont throb at the back of my eyeball.its user friendly with extra features makes it a want to try it out.

Opera is extremely fast, useful, and packed with those useful mouse gestures to make your browsing a real fun.

New Opera 7 also has the auto-form-filler feature. You can have it remember your address, passwords, anything you like, then have it automatically fill out forms for you.

With a cute shortcut, g, you can turn loading of images ON/OFF to make pages load in seconds. This is particularly useful for dial-up users who have slow connections.

Another strong point of Opera is that it is verrry fast. After using Opera for about a week, I have almost stopped using MSIE.

It also consumes very little RAM (if you know what I mean) and doesn't make your computer slow down when browsing even when 10 browsing windows are open!!!!

It also comes with variety of cool skins so that you can ''dress up'' your browser windows the way you please.

With embedded Google search bar, you can search Google right from your browser window. No need to visit the Google website!

Opera is great, free, fast, powerful, and exciting to use! Try it now!

http://www.opera.com

----- Technical details ------

File download size is 3.2 MB (without java)

and is around 10 MB for java enabled version.

Memory requirement is 32 MB RAM

Browser takes up around 10 MB disk space (non Java version)

and around 25 MB for java version.

------------------------------

(c) Amey Purandare.

I absolutely love Opera... It's so fast, useful, and those darned mouse gestures are what really keep me using it.

Opera has a mouse gesture system that is really the core of why I use it. By holding the right mouse button and waving the mouse around a bit, you can close one window, open another, and rearrange them all within Opera's tabbed interface.

Opera also has this feature that's an auto-form-filler-in thing. You can have it remember your address, passwords, anything you like, then have it automatically fill out forms for you.

You can type ''g mouthshut'' in the address bar and it will do a Google search for ''mouthshut'' automatically. Or, maybe ''e antiques'' to do an eBay search for antiques.

Another strong point of Opera is that it's so fast. After using Opera for a bit, I decided to open up MSIE to see what it's like, and the load times were unbearable after using Opera. I really enjoyed it.

Opera's so jam-packed with features that it's insane! Anything you ever wanted from a browser can be found here in Opera!

Opera's great, free, fast, powerful, and exciting to use! Try it now!

Opera - Definitely the Fastest Browser on Earth!

Have invalid page faults and repeated errors in Internet Explorer driven you mad? Or are you annoyed by Netscape Navigator's sluggishness? If your answer to any of these is in the affirmative then it's high time you tried Opera.

What is Opera?

Opera is a fast, secure, configurable, and standards compliant Web browser. Opera gives you the liberty to run numerous windows without opening up other instances and many more features that make it 'the' choice for a serious Web enthusiast. Opera comes with lots of features, including 128-bit encryption, improved security for your online transactions, cookie management and many more.

Most of the people reading this review must be using IE or Netscape right now. Nothing wrong in it. Once upon a time I too used to periodically swap between these to browsers. But Opera changed it all. Now I use Opera all the time and Mozilla once in a while.

What made me try Opera for the first time?

First and foremost I must thank both IE and Netscape for it was these two browsers that annoyed me to the limit as a result of which I started using Opera.

Netscape is painfully slow to load as it is filled with irrelevant features. (The latest versions are worse than the older versions). Browsing too is quite slow. IE is slightly faster but it brings with it infinite Invalid Page Faults and Errors. IE, as you would all agree crashes too often and also brings down the OS with it.

Features of Opera that keep me hooked on to it.........

Speed - Opera or as it is aptly called 'The fastest browser on earth!', roars through the Net. It is definitely the fastest of all browsers. All people who have used Opera at least once would agree with me. The loading too is quite fast. Try opening a html file first with IE then with Opera. The difference in speed is practically visible.

Interface - is simple yet attractive. One handy feature is the integration of several search options such as Google, AllTheWeb, Amazon.com, Opera Support Search, Image Search, Video Search, Mp3/Audio Search, Google Groups Search and many more into the browser. That means there is no need to go to google.com to invoke a search. Support for skins is available.

Stability - All of us have experienced the agony of IE crashing when we are seriously browsing. Believe me you will never face this problem with Opera.

In the past 1.5 years that I have been using Opera, it hasn't crashed a single time! On the contrary, once when I tried to crash it intentionally by trying to open hundred odd html files instantaneously it didn't crash nor did it hamper system functioning. It simply terminated.

If the computer shuts down due to power failure, the next time you launch Opera it provides you with an option to continue browsing from where you stopped last time. This means the precious URL of the sites you were browsing is saved automatically.

Periodic Reloading of a Page - You can see to it that Opera reloads every web page every 5 minutes, or whatever duration you want. This is useful for accessing information from a site that updates itself often. E.g.: Live cricket scores, Share prices, etc. Some Web pages set an expiration time for themselves. You can choose to reload the page only if it has expired.

Status Bar -Opera tells you everything it is doing. It tells you the percentage of the page that is being loaded, time taken, bytes loaded, speed, no of images loaded and no of images present on the particular page etc.

Other Features -Opera loads text first followed by images. This increases the speed

Opera allows image toggling (like IE). You can turn the image option off so that the pages get displayed without images, thus speeding your browsing. By keeping this option on you can see to it that the pages are displayed with images. Clicking a small button from within the open window can do all this.

The package of bookmarks given is excellently organized and carefully selected.

Auto completion of location bar and forms is supported. Auto completion feature also shows the date and time the site was last browsed.

Some sites may intentionally/unintentionally block some browsers. To overcome this problem you are provided with an option to identify your browser to the site as Mozilla, IE or Opera itself.

You can specify as to what is supposed to be done with pop up windows. You can accept, refuse or open it in the background.

While saving web pages you can either save with images or without. It is quite handy.

Letdowns.................

Firstly it is adware. The free version of Opera comes with a banner ad.

The most common complaints about Opera are about its Email Client and Download Client both of which are supposedly not good enough. As I don't use either of these I can't comment. People say it doesn't integrate with download managers. Flashget (Checkout my review on it), which in my opinion is the best download manager integrates well with Opera with the help of a freely downloadable plug-in.

The Verdict

'Go for it' - I dare say that very soon Opera will become more popular than IE or Netscape.

General Info

Version - 6.01

Pre Installation Size - 10.7 MB (with Java)

Post Installation Size - 12.8 MB

Website - https://opera.com/

Thanks for Reading

Kindly Rate the Review

Opera, ''The Fastest Browser on the Planet'', when somebody declares its product with such an Comment, then it is worth atleast to give it a try. I started out with Opera 6.0, an year ago, when I received a free copy of the Software in one of the Cds provided along with a Computer Magazine. But for some time I am using Opera v 6.2. From the time I started using Opera 6.2 I never have even thought about using any other browsing software. Its a very fast, user-friendly, reliable and versatile internet/intranet browser that also include a News-reader(I never I tried using that feature, although that's there).

Its has lot of Pros and a very few Cons.

Pros:

>>> Opera is surely the fastest browser available on Windows Platform. It is so fast because the whole of the product is made in Windows SDK, so the time taken to convert any language code to native code is avoided. Although it means a lot of Programming, but it makes is closet to the Operating System. Basically, it means, you save lot of money on your Phone and Internet Connection.

>>> Though very user friendly, you can operate the complete software with keyboard. A lot of you may not understand the difference, but ask me. It makes surfing a pleasure.

>>> Opera v 6.0 onwards, supports, CSS, Java, Java Script, SSL(128-bit), TLS(Transaction Layer Security) and many more. All these make all your personal and system data very secure.

>>> It also has an email Engine, which is very light and effective.

>>> It has a very improved Memory Management Technique, which makes all the people with old machine use their System to its optimum.

>>> It has an Advanced Import feature which enables it to import your Favorite and E-mail Settings. It also imports your Address Book.

>>> Its interface is the best. All the browser windows are opened within the application itself. This doesn't clutter your taskbar. It also comes with the facility of changing Theme. You can download Skins from the net and make it look wonderful. It starts as MDI application, but you can configure it to work as an SDI (but who will??).

>>> It supports Unicode.

>>> It works with all the versions of Windows OS, but I'm on Windows 98.

>>> It Never gives a illegal operation error.

Cons:

>>> The E-mail Client is very to understand. Better not to use its E-Mail Client. Use Eudora, you will love that E-mail Client.

>>> Doesn't integrate with Netsonic, although with Opera you will never need Netsonic.

Overall:

God, if they had made one of its version for Linux, I would have certainly bought that one. If you are hesitant to work on Linux, Opera is the Best Browser you should go for. The Easy Availability of the Software and its Registration Number ;), makes it The Best Browser On Earth(for windows) not just the Fastest.

Size

Pre - Installation - 11 Mb

Post Installation - 40 Mb

Jaimohan(c).

Operais a fast, easy to use, all-around Internet browser. It can also be used for intranet if site is compatible. Now it is possible to run multiple windows even at start-up and many special features are included in version 7 of Windows Beta 2. Opera supports several applications like, CSS, Java, JavaScript SSL (128-bit) and may be many more.

I am using Opera since last one year after reading a review in MS on opera. Just updated the older version-5 to the latest version 7. One can download it from opera.com. You have two options -

1. Download the full version of 12.7 MB with java script takes about an hour.

2. Or go for with out Java Script 3.2 MB takes about 20 minutes to download

I have downloaded the full version because my earlier version was not a registered one. To get better support of java, I have selected the full version. The full version of Opera is now available for free and it is an ad-sponsored version. Registered users will not be disturbed by ads but registration costs is $39. The upgrade from Opera 4 will cost you $15 but users who have registered and paid for Opera 5 can upgrade to latest version for free. Quite an expensive affair, so as always, I have chosen the free version.

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Useful features

--------------------------

Opera has some really nice features if compared with IE or Netscape. New version Opera 7 is full of new features and these are as follows.

# Opera is much smaller than other major internet browsers. It is a full-featured application and offers more few additional functions than others. Installation takes merely a minute and does not occupy too much of space of your hard disk. Updating to the latest version is available at Opera.com and it is fast and easy. Opera functions well on systems with limited resources. A full featured opera occupies only 12.7 MB.

# It is much faster than IE or Netscape in many cases. Opera features integrated search and instant messaging. It supports new JavaScript versions.

# Opera comes with a built-in, full-featured E-mail client. It supports a contact database, multiple account functionality and filtering. An E-mail account can be set up to work in a very short time.

# Opera's user interface has a new start-up dialog. You have several options for display and you can straight go to last saved web pages. New start-up dialog is very useful.

# New Blue and white color scheme can be changed to the Classic Opera look or another design. There are too many choices for download; even a skin similar to that of IE6 is also available.

# It has a better Panel option. Place Web pages in panels that are displayed in the Hotlist during your browsing session. In Hotlist one can store favourite sites in addition to Bookmark. Panels are available at my.opera.com / customize. Panel can be customized as per your choice.

# The Wand password manager does the one-click log-in to password protected sites. Log-in fields with available passwords are marked with a slick golden edge. One can access these pages by simply clicking the Wand icon in the panel.

# Personal Bar and Page bar and features improved window handling. Drag favorite bookmarks from the Hotlist to the Personal bar and keep your most used search engines easily available. One can customize it in the View menu.

# Hotclick - Double-click a word (or right-click a selected phrase) and get a pop-up menu with features such as search, encyclopedia look-up, and translation. This is very useful feature.

# Bookmarks search is good and one can import bookmarks of IE and store here

# It has improved its drag-and-drop and support for Unicode and Live Connect.

# Almost everything in Opera can be done through a keyboard shortcut but not as good as IE.

# Opera can easily be configured to push all pop-up windows to the background or to not show them at all.

# The advanced cookie management capability in Opera can prevent certain sites from planting cookies in computer. You can accept, view, filter, or deny cookies as you please - this is good for security reason.

# Users can zoom in and out of entire Web pages without loss of quality from 20 to 1000%. Opera changes the size of the fonts and images, making the browser highly accessible to users with visual defect.

# Toolbar - New version is having a very versatile toolbar. Opera's many toolbars, like the main, status, personal bar, page bar, address bars can be customized with lot of option. Favorite bookmarks and searches can be stored and organized on personal bar. The page bar keeps track of Web pages (tabs) in SDI mode, similar to the window bar in MDI mode. Right-click your favorite image to use it as a skin on your browser interface or display it on your desktop. Design your own buttons for the main bar, and add program sounds to Opera events.

# Its in-buil Super Search is powered by Goggle and one more search engine. These engine works better with this application, searching web is very fast.

Yet to try many of its options

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Difficulties

--------------------------

I think all good things have a darker side and Opera is no different. Because of following reason I still have IE 5.5 as an alternate browser.

# Unfortunately, it doesn't work with many secure sites. Yahoo messenger or companion is also not compatible.

# Often have to switch over to IE whenever I buy something online

# Opera crashes once in awhile (not to often) so it is better to save the downloaded application to any other drive so that reinstallation is easy

# Web pages I print don't usually look like original

According to few opinions in some other sites, it has too many other problems but I have never faced such problems. IE 6 may be a better application but it is really difficult to get rid of it when it stops working.

Other than all that, Opera really is very nice and easy to use. I use it mainly due to several available options that make life easier and the speed. Guys, this version (7) of Opera does not fit in a floppy like its older version 4. You have to burn a CD to store it.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year

After reading reviews of previous versions here I can only say that Opera has come a long way with their Version 7.

Some of the ''cool'' and sometimes even ''geeky'' features that make this browser a dream to work with are:

• Tabbed Browsing

• Mouse Gestures

• Good skinning

• FAST!

• Ability to identify as a wide array of browsers

• Easy, intuitive interface

• Easy configuration

• Great cookie handling

These are just the things I found out after an hour or two, but I want to bet there's a lot more to explore. For the average user it's easy to get started with Opera, but for those who want more control (like me) shall find a good companion in Opera. For example: Where IE only lets you ''Block'' or ''Accept'' a cookie Opera let's you choose a whole range of options like ''Accept'' ''Accept, but clear when closing opera'' ''Accept and allow updates until closing'' and more. This kind of power I've never seen in any browser before.

Go get it now!

It is as it claims the fastest browser on earth. The variety of features are wonderful. The speed shown, the time consumed, the size of file to be downloaded are some of its wonderful features. I was happy to switch over to it. Also the option of new page helps us to keep our taskbar clean as we can switch from one page to another from the opera’s window itself. I would like to say that it is a complete browser. The option to start from where you left last time is fabulous. Also I liked the various websites listed in it. Overall I would like to say that it is a complete browser.

When many leading browsers started getting hefty in their bytes, a new browser came out with a size of less than an MB! Yes, friends, Opera's size is around 950KB!

Here I am talking about it's fairly old version of 4.02, when it wasn't free and was about to capture the market. Just as Linux came in and shattered the walls of Microsoft's Windows, in the same Opera came out and hurted the egos of browsers like Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator.

There are many helpful options in Opera that makes me select it for my daily web surfing. I would like to share them all with you, and tell you all why I like this simple and small browser.

Introduction

The browser was developed by a person called Eric Young in the year 1995. He wanted a browser which would be just around 1 MB in size, but should be compatible with all OS and must have all the features included in IE or Netscape. It was like David challenging the Goliaths of IT industry. The efforts resulted in the small and compact browser called Opera.

The Size and Easy Installation

As I said, it is the only browser that will fit in a floppy. Other browsers were busy adding in features that made them go well over 25 MB. Opera, inspite of having many features, stands at around an MB. The installation will take just around 3-4 MB of your disk space. The installation procedure is very simple and fast. It just puts in the required .dll files and other .exe files. Everything is arranged nicely in individual folders. All is done in a snap, and you are ready to use one of the most versatile browser of all time.

Hotlist

Usually, we have to search for web sites that we want to see. But Opera has a readymade list of web sites that will match your likings. All the websites are listed in appropriate categories and titles. Let's say, you want to know the latest news or sports happenings. You just have to select the category 'Sports', and view the appropriate page. Then there are other categories with loads of websites like 'Business', 'Downloads', 'Culture', and so many more. You can also have your own category. And yes, you can even add your bookmarks like any other browser.

Different Window View Modes

This may be the only browser where you can select you Zoom Percentage. If you are viewing a page which has a large photo that isn't fitting the screen, you can just select the 50% zoom option and see it all! Then you can cascade or tile your windows. You cannot just decrease the size of your window, but can enlarge it to more than 1000%! So, you will not miss the minute details on the web page.

Effective Cache System and History

Cache is the folder where all the images, sounds, HTML pages, etc. go and settle down whenever you view a web page. This helps in fast downloading of the page when you visit the site again. Opera has a very good cache system. It has a single cache folder, unlike IE where everything is in many different folders. If you don't need the files, you can delete them easily. The cache works for easy offline viewing. There is no hassle of the web address getting displayed on the Address bar of your browser window. The address does not get stored in that address bar. So, you can escape by visiting some websites without getting caught! People would not know where have you been strolling on the web. There is also nothing like History, which can tell people where you were during those few hours of web surfing. Some may feel that this is not a good feature. But it sometimes helps.

Image Toggle

Sometimes you visit a website just to get the text information. But you find that you are being bombarded by loads of images. Opera gives you option of turning them off and on by just clicking a small button on its left bottom corner. When I turn the image option off, the pages get displayed in a jiffy. Also, Opera loads text first and then the images. This works out for its speed. Its functionality is very close to IE.

Other Party Tools

Opera does not have any in-built plug-ins or clients. This is why it is so small in size. It gets all its plug-ins from other browser, which it automatically takes in. Also, its E-mail client is some other software running through it. Let's say if you send a mail through Opera. Your mail will be actually sent by Outlook or Messenger or Eudora. Also your incoming mails will go in to these clients. So, Opera actually needs other browsers to support it. But, nowadays, it has everything in-built. Also, you have the option to have specific plug-ins for Opera. Its plug-in folder is very flexible and can have any of them.

Status Bar

The other nice thing about this browser is that it tells you everything it is doing. It tells you how much of the page is loaded in percentage, how many images have been loaded and how many still left to be loaded. It gives you all the information. It is a useful feature.

This was all I have to say about Opera. When I first installed it on my PC, I was amazed to see its speed and compatibility. It has never crashed yet. I usually surf using Opera.

There are some glitches in this browser as well. It does not support database-backed buttons. It just supports HTML buttons. Sometimes, a web site will look good only in IE and Netscape, but would appear haywire in Opera. It is just because designers design a web site keeping the top two browsers in mind. They usually neglect browsers like Opera. So don't be surprised if some web sites look different. Also, having all external clients for Opera makes it necesary to have atleast one of the top two browsers. Also the browsing window is quite small and crowded when compared to IE or Netsacpe.

But all in all, it is a nice browser. I think it is free now, and the size has gone up to more than 2 MB for the latest version. But then to, it is still as good as it was.

Just have it!

Opera! Just downloaded it a month back. Must say a fantastic browser. I found it very handy,easy,let's u do many more things. On top of all it does not open windows all over the place. In case ur boss is around all that u need to do is minimise only one place. LOL! Some cool features such as u can avoid opening of popup windows altogether or u can open them in background. I just love it as it frees u from the growing microsoft slavery. Very important. Yes it's preety fast too. The looks are also great. U can choose between SDI or MDI interface. Must say this is better that internet explorer which crashes my machine at times. Surely better than netscape thing that I had some time back. Now I cant write anything more than that. LOL!

Log on to the web.That's what 95% people using computers want to do.So what do they do.Some do research, some do they daily communication some for information and reset for excursion.

Internet has become need for everyone.Everyone uses the web for one reason or the other.

Internet in it's early day was used to send text.But many got to gather and the scene went to a change.The web became but useful,interactive and graphical.

Shell account was used to just look at text but provided no graphics.TCP/IP account then came in to provide graphical user interface.So Internet is a connected network when data is stored on various server in coded form.So there need to be something which should decode this and show it to the user.

When this is where Browser's come and play great helpful role.

Mosaic was the first browser to be developed and as day's passed by many browser's gained popularity.Internet explorer made it's move during this stage which was developed by Microsoft and came along with Windows pre-loaded, so many did not take trouble to install the other browsers.

But something still was missing.People expected a more good look and many other features.Netscape was developed which gave a good competition to IE.But failed to beat IE.

Netscape still was popular due to it's improved look and good performance but failed to beat Ie in it's speed.

So Opera browser moved in.With it's claim to be the fastest browser on earth.But was it faster and is it faster come let's CHECK IN and see what's in store in Opera.

Welcome to Opera- The fastest Browser on Earth

Opera is a browser which can be downloaded for free from https://opera.com.It come it is a adware browser but ads can be removed by paying a small amount.

Opera is indeed the fastest browser as it fair a very good score in it's load up time.The browser is quite well designed and provides a much more better options than IE.

So what's in store

Opera is good browser or let me call it the best browser there could be.It loads up very fast, has a good design and great add-ons.

Opera after it's first run ask's you if you want to load you new window within the main frame or load the new window on the task bar.Choosing the option with in window is a good options.

So now you task bar is less clustered up comes much low resources.

You can add skins to your browser by logging on to .my.opera.com and downloading a skin which you like.The installing instruction come along.

Opera is one of the best browser as it has much low or less error's popping up than any other browser.IE takes the award when it comes to error.

And you need not worry about loosing the site address after you get a error, as Opera has a built in debugger which gives the option browsing the same spot you left behind before error.

After you run opera the next time a box will provide you with this option.

These all make Opera the best according to me.

So what more has it to provide

Opera comes with a built-in email client which has interface similar to Outlook and help you do the work of checking and sending mail.But there are not as much options as other clients offer.

But it is good for those who use client for just checking mail.

Opera also support the keyboard to a lot and considered to provide the most options in keyword.You can control almost every option by keyboard and mouse, which IE fails to provide.

Opera also provides support to various languages like javascript,XML and various other options.

Transfer option,bookmarks,tool bar etc...

Do you know Opera comes with a built in Download Manager which can help you with downloading you file and also has a resume option with it to help you continue your downloading.

You have a good experience with Opera I advice you to skin opera as opera has various skin options.

Opera also comes with bookmark facility and has a collection of lots of pre-bookmarks.You can also add your own bookmarks to Opera.

Opera also imports you IE bookmarks so that you don't have to switch.Opera has good tool bars and the best tool bar is the Personal bar where in you can put your most used sites.

So what's bad about this

Beware designers, Opera does not support full support to you HTML codes as HTML does.You might keep an idea that the site will look like this and write the code.

You design look's perfect on IE, but you will have to tweak codes for Opera.So this is one drawback.

Final advice and conclusion

For those normally surf the web, I think opera is the best browser for you.With a fast performance and great utility this browser surely leaves IE behind by a huge mark.It also has great zooming facility and good interface.

So do check it out.

Opera is really a good browser and need marketing, and don't you think good works need appreciation.I hope through this review I spread words and do tell your friend about Opera.