The beta of the Opera 9 web browser supports widgets – small web applications delivering multimedia, newsfeeds and other material onto users’ desktops – and BitTorrent file downloading technology.
Other features include content blocking and site-specific preferences that can be set to remove advertisements or images, improved rich text editing for use with webmail and blogging services, a customisable search box and thumbnail previews on browser tabs.
Web developers can create their own widgets and share them with others across different operating systems.
Although Opera has only a tiny slice of the browser market – just 0.54%, compared with the dominant Internet Explorer’s 84.7% and 10% for the open source Firefox – it is making a push into the mobile browser arena.
Opera Software has announced a tie-up with voice over IP specialist Jajah to integrate Jajah’s web telephony product into Opera Mobile and Opera Mini browsers. The Jajah technology will be included as a widget in Opera 9.
Opera can be downloaded free at
www.opera.com
