New Opera 10 Browser Hits The High Notes

Software Web browser compression

Oslo, Norway-based Opera said the new browser is available at www.opera.com in 43 languages for Windows, Mac and Linux computers.

Opera has a long way to go to catch up with Microsoft's Internet Explorer and Mozilla's open-source Firefox browsers. A recent report from Net Applications put Opera's share of the browser market at slightly more than 2 percent, just behind Google Chrome and Apple's Safari browsers and far behind IE's 67 percent market share and Firefox's 23 percent share.

But Opera fans are known to be a devoted bunch and the new release will likely strengthen their loyalty.

Turbo offers a way for users stuck with slow networks, such as a sluggish Wi-Fi connection, to speed up Web page downloads. Turbo automatically detects when a network connection is slow and compresses pages, meaning less data needs to be transferred. Opera said its own tests showed that the technology provided up to eight times faster download speeds.

Opera 10 also offers a spell checker that supports 51 languages, a built-in e-mail client, and an updated version of Opera Dragonfly, the browser's Web development toolset.