Best Desktop Browser

   As you guys may already know there are loads of internet browsers out there in the market today. And as you are using one already, you may be interested in knowing which browser comes with the complete feature set and the complete package. Here we are going to look into the features of Opera Internet Browser and some minor comparisons with Mozilla Firefox and Microsoft Internet Explorer.

    First of all thinking of browsing without tabs is a big no-no, at least for many avid internet users. Opera was the first browser to implement it way back in 2000. Now it is a standardized feature in most browsers. Opera tabs can be cascaded, tiled and rearranged. Opera tabs save their states the next time you open them. IE does not offer this feature. Firefox loads the page straight off the internet the next time it is opened, while Opera shows from the cache. It is worthwhile to note that the much anticipated Internet Explorer 7.0 provides a maximum number of 6 tabs, not too much appreciation for the guys at Redmond.

    Opera 9.25 comes at a download size of 4.7 Mb compared with 5.7 Mb for Firefox 2.0 and some 24 Mb for IE 7, then again download size doesn’t matter much these days. But it is important to note that even at this reduced size, the performance advantage is greater over the other browsers.

    Another great feature of Opera is its cache system. It loads and renders pages quick. When you hit the back button, you go back to the page in your cache. It doesn't reload the page from the site. That is a very good feature.

    Opera has a consistent interface on all platforms, unlike Firefox which varies a bit with platform. Both provide a lot of customizations and skins unlike IE 7, which still has not met with the expectations. At this point I would like to say that the most stable browser from Microsoft could be Internet Explorer 6 with all Service Packs and updates.
 
    Opera has an inbuilt Download Manager that can even resume downloads, Firefox also provides this but is a bit distractive with a popup and unable to specify the folder for saving the downloads. Opera has Built-in IRC client, Built-in email client and Built-in news reader.

    Customizable style sheets to change the display with all the useful ones built-in. Can't read that site with the ping background and red letters? Make it black and white for ease of readability. Opera provides users the power to view a site in their ways.

    Using a slow connection, toggle images on, off, or from local cache, a great way to save your bandwidth.

    On the fly user agent switching. This means you can probably use Opera on that bank site that says "Internet Explorer 5.0 or above necessary to use this site."

    Searching made easy with Integrated Search! The search box next to the address bar where you can enter the search term and select some of the most commonly used Internet search engines to directly get your result. Further more you can invoke the search page from the address bar. If you want to search some term with Google, type the search term preceded by g.
E.g.: g Opera Browser
And press enter to invoke the Google Search page with search term as “Opera Browser”.

   There is a great feature called note taker where by you can copy some important text onto a note collector and easily retrieve it anytime with just a couple of clicks. Language translator is available for converting text between different languages. It also provides an encyclopedia service.

    Now for some great Artificial Intelligence (AI) development, just think for opening a new page, saying “Opera New Page”! That’s what the Voice Library can do for you. It can even read the web page content for you. Clearly this feature is not available in any other browsers as of today. The library is about 10 Mb download, but those who want to use it can download it for free.

    Tests on browsers conducted by independent organizations and researchers show that Opera is the fastest to render CSS and HTML. Opera supports all major Web standards currently in use, including CSS 2.1, XHTML 1.1, HTML 4.01, WML 2.0, ECMAScript, DOM 2 and SVG 1.1 basic.

    Mouse Gestures and keyboard shortcuts offer some cool ways to use this browser.

    Safe, secure, powerful and fully customizable, the Opera Web browser is over 30% faster than IE, and faster and more secure than Firefox. Recent benchmarks show that Opera even exceeds the speed of Firefox with multiple tabs opened. Opera delivers robust security and a far-richer feature set than any other Web browser and it's free.

    So I would conclude that for leisure, or for serious web development purposes 
and looking from all persepectives, Opera would be the leader of the pack.