It is a new feather in Opera's cap.Norway's Opera Software is the most used and popular mobile browser in the world now.Web analytics firm StatCounter released this statment on Tuesday.

According to StatCounter, the total number of all Internet pages that were downloaded to mobile devices globally in May, 24.6 percent were downloaded through Opera's browser and 22.3 percent via iPhone. The top spot has see-sawed this year.

"Opera began the year in the number one slot but iPhone overtook it in February,"

Aodhan Cullen, chief executive of StatCounter, said in a statement.

"It will be fascinating to watch how this battle plays out over the year."

Opera sells its browser to many cellphone makers and operators.Consumers can directly download it for free, while the Apple browser's ranking reflects only iPhone users surfing the Internet. Nokia , the world's top cellphone maker, retained third place in mobile browsers with 17.9 percent of the market, StatCounter said. StatCounter said its research data is based on four billion pages loaded per month.

Opera Released New Browser

Opera is in news once more.Opera , a Software company from Norway released first test version of Opera 10 on Wednesday.The newest version of its browser, promising faster downloads, new design and new features.

Opera is one of top browser maker in the world and ranks third worldwide.But there is big gap between Opera and Microsoft or Mozilla Foundation. Competition in the browser market has escalated lately after Google launched its own Internet browser, Chrome, in 2008.



"Your Web browser is the most important piece of software you will ever use," Opera's Chief Executive Jon von Tetzchner said in a statement. "We think Opera 10 will redefine how you can enjoy the Web." According to Opera the new browser is more than 40 percent faster than its previous browser on resource-intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook, and adds features like full thumbnails of all open tabs. Companies usually release several successive test versions of their browsers so they can incorporate user feedback in a series of improvements before their final launch. Microsoft launched its latest IE8 browser in March after a year of public beta testing. Microsoft's Internet Explorer is used for about 60 percent of global Internet traffic, Mozilla's Firefox has about 30 percent, and Opera is at 4 percent, just ahead of Google and Apple, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

Opera , Mozilla and Google have protested Microsoft's dominance in the browser market to the European authorities. Microsoft has run afoul of U.S. and European antitrust regulators for bundling its browser with its operating system, which competitors say is an attempt to drive them out of the market. In January, European regulators brought formal charges against Microsoft for abusing its dominant market position by bundling its Internet Explorer Web browser with its Windows operating system, which is used in 95 percent of the world's personal computers. Opera has a small share of the desktop browser market, but its mobile browser is the most widely used browser on handsets.

No longer is a beta, Google’s Chrome Web browser a capable contender to Microsoft Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox.

However, the search company's browser not have some basic features found in IE, Firefox and Opera, and limits users who want to characterize settings and customize their browser. In spite of its shortcomings, browser users should give Google Chrome a try.

Just a few short months ago, Google surprised the Web world with the make public of the beta of Google Chrome, a new Web browser direct from the search massive itself.
So what does the launch of Google Chrome 1.0 mean for the Web browsing world and the Web in general? Well, the simple fact that it is from Google has a major impact, and should put the browser in a good place to fight with Microsoft and Mozilla for market share.

But what about the browser itself? From a severe usability standpoint, Google Chrome is one of the most attractive and instinctive browsers I have ever used, and is probably the most impressive first version of a browser ever. Once a user gets over some of the foibles and differences from other browser interfaces (such as tabs at the very top of the window and no file menus), Google Chrome quickly begins to feel like the right way to surf the Web.

Hopefully that post will help you any time you need computer repair related news, will get in that blog. Google Chrome also has some other nice touches, such as a hybrid search address bar and integration with Google Gears to provide desktop Web applications. However, not everything about Google Chrome shines brilliantly.

As it has done with previous Internet Explorer (IE) releases, Microsoft has made available an IE 8 blocking toolkit to allow users to keep Microsoft’s browser from being downloaded automatically on their Windows machines.

In a January 6 posting to the Microsoft IE blog, company officials noted that Microsoft is planning to push the final IE 8 release via its Automatic Update (AU), Windows Update (WU) and Microsoft Update (MU) update systems. To keep the release from being pushed, customers can download the blocker toolkit from the Microsoft Download Center.

Unlike some previous versions of the toolkit, there is no expiration date on the latest blocker. The toolkit can be configured by running the registry file on client machines or via Group Policy, according to the IE 8 blog posting.

Once the final IE 8 bits are ready, Microsoft is planning to mark them as a top priority for distribution, officials said via the blog entry:
“The IE8 update will be released as the highest priority update for each operating system. For Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008, it will be listed as Important. For Windows XP and Windows Server 2003, the update will be listed as High Priority. Delivery of IE8 via AU will begin after we make IE8 available from the Microsoft Download Center. Of course, users can always decline to install IE8 through AU when it is offered.”

Microsoft hasn’t provided a final release target date for IE 8, other than to say some time in 2009. Late last year, company officials acknowledged Microsoft would not be releasing the final version of IE 8 before the end of calendar 2008, as some company officials had claimed previously. Instead, Microsoft is planning to distribute in the first quarter of 2009 one more public test release, Release Candidate 1, before it rolls out the final IE 8.

I’m not sure if we’ll see RC 1 of IE 8 this week. While Microsoft is expected to release the official version of Windows 7 Beta 1 to private and public testers over course of the next three days, the build of IE8 that is part of Windows 7 Beta 1 is still Beta 2, company officials said on January 7. (The refreshed partner test build of IE 8 that Microsoft released privately in December was designated as “RC1″ but isn’t the official RC1 release, the Softies have said.)
When I asked earlier this week, Microsoft officials wouldn’t comment on when IE 8 RC1 would go live.