Opera is a proprietary software provider who has created a variety of tools for online users. The Internet browser is much like Internet Explorer, and serves the same purpose. But there are some significant differences that convinces a small number of Internet users to adopt this new browser in place of IE.

Opera has a great reputation for well-built products and their browser download is much smaller than Internet Explorer. Even on a dial-up connection, the Opera installation file can be downloaded in less than half an hour.

Opera beats Internet Explorer in a few areas where features are concerned:

* Visual tabs-you can drag the bottom of the row of tabs in your browsing window to change them to thumbnails of webpages. Also, when you hover over tabs with your mouse, a preview of the site appears under the tab.

* Tab bar placement. You can now move your row of tabs (or thumbnails of sites) the the left, right, or bottom of the browsing window.

* Speed dial-Opera was one of the first browsers to offer a page of thumbnails that function as a shortcuts to websites. You can now customize the number of thumbnails to 24 and change the background image on the page.

* Turbo mode-ideal for dial-up and low-speed wifi connections, this handy feature compresses images on the webpages for faster loading times! The turbo mode can be set to automatically turn on when the connection speed slows, or to stay on constantly.

* Mouse gestures-these shortcuts can be performed with your mouse to open links in new pages, go back, forward, or close windows with presets clicks and movements of your mouse.

* Image loading options-simply click a small button at the bottom of the window to switch from loading all images or only cached images to help with page loading. Or, if you prefer a more secure and even faster load time, images can be turned off completely. Also, right click on images that have been hidden or compressed, and you'll have the option of reloading that image normally.

You can find many other features that are similar to other browsers. Other simple preferences are available, like changing the colors and layout of your browser or adding your name and location information for fast form entry. The features page on the Opera website has more information.

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Posted by Jenny on Tuesday, September 20, 2011

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