Yes ladies and gentlemen, Opera 8 has been released and it looks like it’s sleaker, faster, meaner and better than ever. The version 8 brings a number of new features and innovations, not to mention customizability options. Not to mention that you just install over your old Opera installation and it picks up all your previous options and settings. Just some of the features opera 8 has:
[list]
[]New look, bigger browsing area.
[]Improved security and smart pop-up blocker.
[]It’s the fastest browser on the planet.
[]Integrated search engines and customizable search (for instance, you just type ‘g kirupa’ in the address bar to search for kirupa. I’ve made my own setting that if I input ‘gi kirupa’ I search for images of kirpa)
[]Completely customizable look, all buttons, toolbars and bars are deletable, setable and you can basically put them anywhere you want and how you want.
[]Can automatically fit the page to window width
[]Smart left panel which includes history, irc chat, notes etc.
[]Of course it has mouse gestures, fully customizable. Also customizable key shortcuts. And supports browsing without even using the mouse (spatial browsing).
[]Fast forward function, it detects which page would be the successor to the page you’re viewing and takes you there (for instance on forums if you’re viewing a thread and go fast forward it takes you to the next thread).
[]Full page zoom (not just text zoom)
[]Ability to set your own stylesheets for pages
[]Integrated code validator
[]Full support for RSS feeds. It even somehow automatically picked up which RSS feeds I viewed before and added them automagically (like alistapart.com and kirupa.com)
[]Fully supports gmail
[]Voice-enabled browsing. Yes you can talk to opera.
[]An excellent mail client.
[*]And much more!
[/list]
Also, the CEO of Opera Software says he will swim from Norway to the USA if Opera downloads peek over 1 million after 4 days of its initial release.
read more here
So I guess we’ll see if he’ll really do it on monday.
Anyway, try Opera for free and see for yourself, you have nothing to lose. I’m loving it.
