It’s been a while since our column extolling the virtues of the Opera web browser, and in the meantime Firefox has stepped up its game, Apple has released Safari for Windows, and Google Chrome was launched.
But Opera’s latest version, 10.5, might put them back on top. Among the many new or updated features:
- Unite, which turns your computer into a limited sort of web server for sharing photos, music, and other types of files
- An "O" button in the top left corner that replaces the main menu bar, freeing up vertical space to show more of the web pages being viewed
- Dragonfly, Opera’s debugging tool for inspecting CSS and Javascript
- Opera Link, which synchronizes your bookmarks, browser history, and searches between multiple computers
- Better integration with Windows 7 using Aero Peek and Jump Lists
- Non-modal "overlays" so that JavaScript pop-ups and other types of alerts don’t block you from switching tabs
Besides Dragonfly, other improved developer features include a much faster JavaScript engine called Carakan, and support for several new CSS, HTML5, and SVG features.
So maybe it’s time for an updated article on Opera? Or a "state of the browsers" column to cover new technologies and features?
Tags: carakan, chrome, css, firefox, html, javascript, opera, safari