With all the talk about Firefox, Opera slipped under the radar with it’s own new version of their browser. Opera 9.5 was released today and it got a major facelift. New features including the Opera link, Quick find, a new address bar and many other items.
The new version of the browser has updated some security issues including a new Fraud Protection and new Security notification scheme. The browser also works on localhost protection. Basically, it will tell you if a webpage is coming from the Internet, or someones’ computer. This will help in determining fraud pages if you connect up to a questionable wifi spot.
GeckoDOM, DOM3 and MicrosoftXMLDocument support features have been added for the developers. It will also run HTML5, which is the current revision of the HTML code. It also ushers in XHTML5, which is where HTML is expressed in an XML document.
If you run Windows 95 (and I have to ask the question: WHY?) you will have to update your Windows Sockets to 2.0. XP and Vista will have better settings with Opera and you will be able to set the default mail program in the Control Panel.
The browser was noted a couple months back for passing the ACID3 test. This is a test found over at acidtests.org that basically checks the browser for compliance to web standards. Opera got a perfect score back in March. Keep in mind that once you start installing plugins, that standardization test will differ. So you should remove any plugin you do not use. That should be the case for any browser.
Opera 9.5 comes in 29 different languages through the International Download. It supports any Windows system 95 or better and only requires 20 MB to load. There is a version for Windows, Mac and Linux.
Opera is a great alternate browser. It’s got some cool features (I recommend the fish tank) and does make for a great Internet experience.