Browser Security News

Once the predatory browser client that was constantly stalking Microsoft Internet Explorer, Norwegian upstart Opera has more recently fallen prey to the Firefox phenomenon. Even the major overhaul that produced Opera 8 and 8.5 has done little to increase market share. So, with the new release, we were hoping for something big.

The majority of big changes are concentrated around ‘enhancing the web browsing experience and empowering Web 2.0 developers’, according to the Opera CEO. Much is being made of the inclusion of ‘widgets’ in Opera 9, but we fail to see how Desktop web-powered apps are relevant to browser client development. We’d have preferred more of the integrated web development tools that Firefox provides, or even Firefox-like extension support.

The same headline-grabbing motivation seems to have inspired Opera to integrate BitTorrent support within the client. Although the BitTorrent newbie may find this an easy entry into the dataswarming concept, everyone else will be better off sticking to more powerful third-party apps. A bigger problem is that Opera BitTorrent insists on attempting the download rather than letting you use the system default Torrent client (we resorted to using the right-click ‘Save target as’ item as a workaround).

Both the widget and BitTorrent features are meant to make Opera more user-friendly, so why remove Flash from the installer bundle? In a user-unfriendly move, you now have to download it separately. Where we did run into problems was when importing emails and settings from Outlook, which caused Opera to crash. Upon rebooting, the settings had been imported, but not the message base. Opera 9 - Web tools - Review - www.pcauthority.com.au