My all time favorite browser, this is probably my most used browser. I don't exactly remember when, but I think I first started using this browser from 2000. From the start, Opera has always been popular for its High Speed, Extreme Customization, Tabbed structure, Skinnability, Standard Compliance, Security, etc. Till date, Opera's implementation of tabbed browsing is the best compared to all other available browsers in the market. Also, it is the oldest browser to support session management. Lately however, Opera's browser share has been declining after the advent of Firefox. The latest version is 9.51. Some of the features supported are: Tabbed Browsing, Pop-up blocking, Fraud Protection, Download Manager, Bittorent Client, Search Bar, Web Feed Aggregator, Full-fledged built-in e-mail client (Opera Mail), IRC chat, Speed Dial, Opera Widgets, and more...
Tabbed Structure
As I have mentioned earlier, Opera is one of the earliest browser to implement tabbed browsing. In fact, if you were to compare the tabbed browsing of the various browsers available, you will find Opera's tab implementation to be far superior to others. In the current structure, you can drag the tab around quiet easily. In fact, you can also drag a tab from one window to another. Accidentally closed a tab? No worries, the basket to the right of the tab-bar holds a list of closed tabs. You can choose the tab and it will re-open.
Session Management
This is also one of the oldest features of Opera. If you close Opera, the next time you open Opera, all the tabs and windows that were open when closing Opera, will be restored. For many other browsers, session management is a very new feature. In Opera, when tabs are restored, all the pages are loaded from the cache. So, I can open Opera when a connection is not available, and it will still show the old pages. Crash recovery is also a part of session management in Opera. Opera keeps saving the session every few minutes. If Opera happens to cash, the next time you open Opera, you can resume from were you left.
Privacy and Security
Opera supports all the encryption standard to access secure websites. Main among these being SSL 3 and TLS. Security information, if available, is shown on the address bar itself.
Opera has the least amount of security flaws compared to all other browser.s Also, when a security issue is found, Opera is quick enough to release a new patch.
Standards Support
Opera is one of the first browser to support Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Today, Opera supports many web standards, including CSS 2.1, HTML 4.01, XHTML 1.1, XHTML Basic, XHTML Mobile Profile, XHTML+Voice, WML 2.0, XSLT, XPath, XSL-FO, ECMAScript 3 (JavaScript), DOM 2, XMLHttpRequest, HTTP 1.1, Unicode, SVG 1.1 Basic, SVG 1.1 Tiny, GIF89a, JPEG, and full support for PNG, including alpha transparency.
Also, Opera is the first Windows browser to pass the Acid2 web standards test.
Opera Mail
Opera is the only major browser that comes integrated with an email client within the interface itself. The mail client will co-exist with all the other tabs you are browsing. It supports both POP and IMAP. At first appearance, it might look like a very weak e-mail client. But it is one of the best e-mail client I have ever seen. In Opera, there is no concept of folders. Instead, we have the concept of labels. This might be a bit confusing for new users. But believe me, it is quiet easy and powerful once you start using it. You can add multiple labels for a mail. And when you click on a label, it filters out all mails with that label. My favorite feature only found in Opera is that it can auto-detect mailing-list and create separate views for it. Also, the messages can be show threaded (the mails and its responses are grouped together).
The search within the mail client is very powerful. It is implemented as a "Search as you type". So, the search results are almost instantly available.
There is a small short-coming here. Opera Mail does not support composing HTML mails. In simple words, you cannot compose formatted (bold, italic, different size etc.) mails.
Lots More Left....
Due to shortage of time, I am stopping here. Opera has lots and lots of features. It is best if you download and try it out. For a starter it might not go well. But believe me, after some use, you wont feel like using any other browsers.
Speaking of all these, I still have to mention some shortcomings. One major problem with Opera is that it does not support extensions. Extensions can be found in Firefox and Internet Explorer (Add-ons). But in Opera, this is not possible. Plug-ins written for Netscape are supported by Opera. But, they cannot be a replacement for extensions as they cannot interfere with the interface. Also, owing to its high standard compliance, it does not support certain web pages that don't follow proper standards.
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