What is the Opera Web Browser?

The Opera web browser is a web browser created by the Norwegian company Opera Software. It is one step ahead of other browsers with its speed, security, standard support, small size, and continuous innovation.

It has differentiating features such as tabbed browsing, speed dialing, mouse movements during navigation, personalization by site, and thumbnail view on tabs.

What is Opera Web Browser, and What Does It Do?

Opera is available for Windows, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux, OS/2, Solaris, and FreeBSD. In addition, it has two mobile versions, Opera Mini and Mobile.

Besides these versions, this browser is also available on Nintendo DS and Wii game consoles. It can also be used on the browser for televisions and DVD players.

History

Opera was launched in 1994 as a research project in Telenor, Norway’s largest telecommunications company, and later became a new company called Opera Software ASA in 1995.

It was later released for the first time with the 2.0 version and was only able to run on Microsoft Windows systems in 1996.

In order to take advantage of the developing technology markets, a new project for mobile platforms was launched in 1998.

With version 4.0 released in 2000, a new kernel and tabbed browsing design were developed that runs on multiple operating systems and platforms.

Until now, the Opera web browser has been used as a trial version and has had to be purchased after the trial period has expired.

With the release of version 5.0, this requirement came to an end, and instead, ads were shown to non-paying users.

In its later versions, it added the option to display Google banner ads or text ads to the user. Later, in version 8.5, the ads were removed entirely.

Features included in version 9.1 included fraud protection using the technology of GeoTrust, a provider of a digital certificate, and PhishTank systems, an organization that monitors well-known Phishing websites.

Also, in 2006, browser versions that are compatible with Nintendo Wii and Nintendo DS game systems were developed. But these versions were initially available for a fee. Later, it became available for free again after 2009.

Properties

1. Although it is a quality web browser, some unsupported languages ​​can be found in forums or the community.
2. It allows you to navigate browser functions easily using mouse movements.
3. It allows the addition of favorite websites on the quick search page, allowing a unique design for the user.
4. It allows the detection of unsafe websites or phishing.
5. It provides more professional work thanks to the widgets developed by users.
6. Hovering over a tab shows a preview of the website open on that tab.
7. It offers the latest publications of your favorite websites on the homepage with RSS and Atom support.
8. It shows the user a preview of the content before subscribing to the RSS and Atom features.
9. The integrated e-mail application includes Opera Mail.
10. It allows you to remember account access data of any website, such as username and password, and data only for the current page.
11. It allows us to pause and resume a download as needed or to perform multiple downloads simultaneously.
12. Includes Java IRC chat client and FTP support.
13. The user can close the browser and then have the same open pages and history per tab, as it allows you to save and continue the current browsing session.
14. It allows you to save cookie settings, popups, and java application behavior.
15. It allows you to add small text related to the page you are visiting on the clipboard.
16. It allows you to delete pages protected with cookies, data, passwords, cache, history of visited pages, history of written addresses, history of visited links, history of downloaded files, and other types of private information with a single click.
17. It allows you to block, open, or save certain links on a page. In addition, it will enable instant calls.
18. It has the feature popups.
19. It allows you to block ads or images from the website being visited.
20. It provides fast navigation, navigating between tabs with the Ctrl + Tab Number combination.

Opera Mobile

In addition to the browser version developed for personal computers, different versions can work on mobile devices. These are all based on the same kernel, but their features and user interface may differ.

Opera Mobile is a browser version designed for smartphones and PDAs.

The first version of Mobile was released for Psion Series 7 and NetBook in 2000 and then moved to Windows Mobile in 2004.

Users could try the browser free for 30 days, but they had to buy it to continue using it.

Devices using the UIQ 3 operating system, such as Sony Ericsson P990 and Motorola RIZR Z8, were pre-installed with this version and were included in the price of the phone.

One of the main features of this version is its ability to dynamically change the format of web pages to fit the screen of the mobile device better.

In addition, the user can use the page zoom feature. However, like previous versions of Opera for personal computers, Mobile’s user interface is challenging to use or customize.

Opera Mini

OperaMini, which is offered free of charge, is designed primarily for smartphones and PDAs as well as for mobile phones. It uses the Java ME platform and, therefore, requires the mobile device to run Java ME applications.

The mini-browser requests directly from Opera Software servers that direct and compress information before returning pages to the mobile phone.

This compression process makes transfer time about two to three times faster, and pretreatment facilitates compatibility with web pages not designed for mobile phones.

Opera Wii

On May 10, 2006, the company developed a web browser called OperaWii for the Wii console with Nintendo.

At first, this browser was available for free download, but from July 2007 to September 2009, it was necessary to pay with the Wii Points Wii system to use this browser on the console. Currently, the browser download is free again.