Opera began as a tiny research project in 1994 and the first public version 2.0 was released in 1996. Celebrated as the “fastest browser on earth”, speed tests conducted by ZDNet had confirmed that it clearly performed better and faster than Internet Explorer. Being an opens source application it runs on a variety operating systems including Mac OS X, Linux, MS Windows, Solaris and FreeBSD. Page zooming, stronger encryption, malware-phishing protection, tabbed browsing, download manager are some of its pioneering elements.

Compared to PC browser market, Opera holds a stronger grip on the mobile device markets catering to smartphones, mobile-phones, Java enabled devices, and personal digital assistants. On September 1, this week, Norway based Opera group released the Opera 10 update. Opera 10 has an inbuilt page compression and a done-up tab bar that automatically displays thumbnails on desktop for open pages.

Available in 40 languages, the free web browser can be downloaded for Mac OS X, Windows & Linux Company’s Web site. Nicknamed Opera Turbo, its breakthrough compression engine can accelerate slow connections, like dial-up or cringing broadbands. If we go by company claims, this new version has displayed ‘an eight-fold performance improvement over rival browsers.’ It’s CEO Jon von Tetzchner, was quoted saying "Opera Turbo is our newest innovation, and one we think everyone should try, because we all will face a slow connection at some point.”

At the top of the visible change chart is a retooled tab bar, which can be resized with a click and drag. An important feature is the option of thumbnail preview of each tab's contents. Users having wide-screen monitors can also shift the tab bar to the side of the browser window instead of usual default top position.

Users worldwide were keen to know why the company didn’t integrate Opera Unite feature in the currently released update Through this Unite technology, users can securely share their stuff (files, music & photos without using third-party peer-to-peer services. The company officials were silent about this exclusion of Opera Unite.

Opera as a browser faces a daunting battle convincing users to make a switch, even with the its several innovative features in Turbo version. As per latest research findings by Net Applications group based in US, Opera owns currently a mere 2.1%of the global browser market. It is actually ranked fifth after Mozilla's Firefox, Apple's Safari and Google’s Chrome, & Internet Explorer.