I recently downloaded Opera after it was recommended to me by someone I know. Microsoft's widely used Internet Explorer had been acting ill-fated for me in recent days. Most pop-ups would cause invalid page faults, an error prevented me from using the Find feature and IE would simply not load newly opened windows. Java files and applets would not load even though they were enabled. And more Epinions-related, several time I would be writing a review when the browser would just crash... While I remedied this by first typing out reviews in Notepad, the fact that it was crashing so frequently at all (while other Windows programs ran fine...) become a pain. It was a general travesty of a program that seemed a far cry from what it used to be on my system.


In downloading Opera I did myself a favor. This browser is powerful: It is fast, it is efficient. But probably one of the greatest things about Opera is the large number of features and extras it has. Windows can either be opened as new Opera programs or can be opened within a base Opera program. This allows you to have multiple websites opened but only one "instance" of Opera opened. The Find function (unlike my older IE6) works fine. In addition to find, Opera also has a drop-down list of web searches so you can find information quickly (Opera is probably one of the best browsers I've seen for quick searches). It comes with a slew of links, some useful, although you probably won't be using them too much.


The list does not end there. Opera allows for some nifty control of web pages, including how you view them ("author", "user", "print preview" modes), how images are loaded, auto-refresh and times for auto-refresh, zooming, full screen mode, encoding, heavy security setting ability and much more. When Opera loads pages it lets you know how much is done: Document percentage, image percentage, total, time it takes, and speed. There's a nice download manager with resume and other nice abilities... All of the obvious features are there as well; bookmarks, printing, windowing, preferences... Opera also lets you import email and IE and Netscape bookmarks.


Let us not say that Opera exists without it's problems, but even when I say this I say it with hesitation. Opera's problems are more like petty annoyances, and so far there exists a very large chance that they could go away if I just spent more time messing with the configurations. Either way, here we go... I dislike how Opera has to load images before it will display the page. This generally wasn't something on IE, it loaded things and displayed as it went. I'm a bit wary of the validity of this, it may be a setting I just overlooked. The other gripe I have is the fact that Opera cannot load some "special" things (it messes up on XML and stuff). These are my problems with this web browser, but other than that...


I've noticed increased speed and flexibility in comparison with my previous browser... and believe me, I could probably go on and list more features of Opera, but that would simply be a waste of time. I've yet to experience any true hassle with Opera... in generality, everything I've gotten from this browser has been positive. This is definitely a great tool for any Internet user - I highly recommend it.


In case your mind can't figure it out, the obvious URL is www.opera.com/

Recommended: Yes