It's been in beta for quite some time now, but the innovative web browser Opera has now been released at version 7.50. Improvements over the previous version (7.23) include the following:
• Redesigned User Interface
• Built in IRC (internet relay chat) client
• Support for RSS newsfeeds
• Built in mail client
For a full list of what's new in this version, see here. Features such as tabbed browsing, pop up blocking and cookie management are still all present and correct, as you'd expect.
Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software made the following statement regarding the new release:
Most Internet users are browsing slowly and conducting other Internet activities with applications that should have been retired years ago. Internet Explorer is an aged application that Microsoft has not given a major update in years, and according to press reports they are not planning to upgrade it in the near future. At the same time, most people's e-mail applications still function like it's 1994. Internet users who are looking for something faster, packed with fun features and innovations that will also make them more efficient when online, will find Opera a thrilling experience.
Opera can be downloaded free of charge, in which case you get a fairly unintrusive advertisment banner. To remove the ad banner you have to register Opera which costs USD 39. This also gives access to support, as well as a Premium web mail account for six months with 25MB of storage. Upgrading from any 7.x version of Opera is free.
Although still way behind Internet Explorer in market share, Opera shows the potential of what can be done with internet browsers to make the surfing experience better for end users. Hopefully if more people start using browsers like this it may force Microsoft to update their currently sadly lacking in advanced features Internet Explorer browser.
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