Opera quite comfortably lives up to its billing of "the fastest browser on Earth". Opera software developers are the leaders in technological innovation in this field. They were first ones to introduce what is now called tabbed browsing, which has become a a quintessential aspect of a browser.
This browser, currently in version 8.5, is a must-have for advanced users. The number of innovations and useful features that have been crammed into Opera is something that has to be seen to be believed. Its lean size of 4.5 MB is another wonder as it comes packed with a world-class e-mail client. It keeps your desktop unclut- tered thanks to its tabbed browsing features, which opens all web pages in dockable windows inside a single instance of the application. Simply put, this means different links are opened in the same main window and space is saved on your desktop.
As with Firefox, there are a range of tools to help you find information on the Internet easily. These include integrated searchenabled toolbars to instantaneous looking-up of selected words.
The two features that really stand out in Opera are mouse gestures and zooming into a page. Mouse gestures are extremely addictive features, and something that could be in every browser in the future. They enable you to go back and forth and open or close a page, and much more, using mouse movements. This means minimal use of the keyboard while you are on the Internet. The ease and convenience Opera provides has to be experienced—the tedious task of swapping to the keyboard when using the mouse is no longer required. The keyboard can be used only for typing—until they come up with a way to change that as well!
Another key feature is the page-zoom feature, which allows you to zoom in to the entire document, instead of just the text. The developer shortcuts to turn off stylesheets and images are also useful. In other browsers, you have to go through multiple menus or use bookmarks for this functionality.
One of the growing concern with browsers these days is vulnerabilities on the security front. Opera is one of the most secure browsers, and there haven't been any major security flaws in Opera's history. However, this makes it a bit weak on page display. Though rendering is excellent and the text never gets crooked regardless of the size of the window frame, sites with Flash, advanced HTML or Java content won't always be displayed correctly. This is being fixed, though, and later versions should have better displays for pages with such content.
Like Firefox, Opera is a clear winner on the interface and appearance side. It has both advanced and basic features well laid out throughout; the toolbars and keyboard shortcuts can be used effectively to perform most tasks. The only thing that holds back everyone from using Opera is the sheer number of features available!
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