Opera Browser is Fully Free - No Ads

Opera was once a popular browser and still is within a selected group of people. It came with better features than Internet Explorer and preceded Firefox. It was always available for free but it came with annoying integrated ad banners which may have ultimately contributed to its decreased market-share. There was also a paid-for ad-free version. I have listed the key features below which makes it a strong contender in this polarized world of Firefox and Internet Explorer.

It adds weight to my theory that making a free version available with ad and then making a paid-for ad-free version is not a viable business model. I think it is better to provide a minimal, yet ad-free, version for free and then charge for better functionality and usability.
Give them a taste of the wonderful software you made (say with 60 day free trial with full features) to make them want to continue to have them after the trial period.

Here is a list of key Opera features. I have tried to point out some key features which are not yet available in Firefox. Internet Explorer is far behind and hence not even compared.

Opera features

Efficient surfing

Tabbed browsing

Surf the Web easier and faster by opening multiple Web pages within the same application window.

Integrated search

Search Google, eBay, Amazon and more with Opera’s integrated search. You can also search directly in the address field using shortcuts (e.g. “g” for Google).

Pop-up blocking

Opera lets you control whether to block all pop-ups, or open only the ones that you have requested.

Fast Forward

Fast Forward will detect the most likely “next page” link and greatly simplify navigation in multi-page documents. This is unique to Opera. I haven’t seen it anywhere else.

Password manager

Opera’s password manager remembers your usernames and passwords so you will not have to.

Sessions

Save a collection of open pages as a session, for later retrieval, or start with the pages you had open when Opera was last closed.

Mouse gestures

Opera supports mouse gestures, allowing you to perform certain movements with the mouse in order to access commonly used features.

Quick preferences

Pressing F12 displays Opera’s ‘Quick preferences’ menu to easily switch settings such as browser authentication, pop-up and cookie preferences.

Notes

Notes can be kept in conjunction with a Web site you want to refer to later, to remind you of any particular information you may like to review again.
This is again a Opera only feature and very useful IMHO.

Voice

The voice feature allows you to control Opera’s interface by talking and to have documents read aloud. Voice is currently offered in English and runs on Windows 2000 and XP.

Security and privacy

Security bar

Opera displays security information inside the address bar, located next to the padlock icon that indicates the level of security present on a site.

Encryption

Opera supports Secure Socket Layer (SSL) versions 2 and 3, and TLS.

Opera offers automatic 128-bit encryption, the highest available security of any Web browser.

Delete private data

Opera can be configured to clear the history and cache when exiting, to protect your privacy. Any kind of private data can easily be erased at any time.

Cookie control

Opera gives you detailed control of what cookies to accept and reject, such as allowing for different set-ups for different servers.

Mail and Chat

Opera mail

Opera’s built-in POP/IMAP E-mail client is a combined e-mail program, news reader, mailing list organizer and RSS/Atom newsfeed reader. Looking forward to test its RSS reader.

IRC chat

Communicate with people all over the world using Opera’s IRC chat client. Chat privately or in rooms, or share files with your friends and family.

Customization

Drag and drop

Using the ‘appearance’ dialog you can make Opera look almost any way you want.

Move buttons and search fields, add and remove toolbars, and so forth.

Skins

Opera skins can give your browser the look you want. Make the browser your own by giving it the icons and buttons of your choice.

Language

Opera’s user interface is translated into a multitude of languages, and the language can be changed on the fly.

Accessibility

Zoom

With Opera you can zoom the contents of any Web page from 20%-1000% using the zoom dropdown or the + and - keys.

Text size and colors

Text size and link styling can be changed using Opera.

Text color and background color can also be customized.

User style sheets

Opera comes with a set of ready-made style sheets, including accessibility style, that can be used to override a Web site’s style set completely.

Web development

Standards support

Opera prides itself in supporting 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 tiny.

Small-screen mode

When displaying a page in small-screen mode (Shift+F11) you can see how it will look on a mobile phone or other small-screen device running Opera. This is very useful feature and unique to Opera.

Validate code

You can validate the HTML code of any Web page by pressing Ctrl+Alt+v.

Toggle graphics and style sheets

Graphics and style sheets can be toggled on/off via Opera’s menus and shortcuts.

Info panel

The Info panel shows details about the currently open page such as MIME type, page size, character encoding and more.

Reload from cache

Edit the source of any open Web page and view the result instantly by using ‘Reload from cache’ (Tools/Advanced).

Special features

Full-screen mode

The F11 key toggles Opera’s projection mode, using the whole screen for browsing and, if a projection style sheet is present, displays ’slides’ suitable for presentation.

Kiosk mode

Registered versions of Opera supports kiosk mode - a lock-down mode in which the browser can be used for unattended information stands in public environments.

You can download it here.

Hat-tip: James Huff @ MacManx