The Browser War Lights Up in Europe: The Legendary Opera Web Browser Finally Available for Free.Business Editors & High-Tech Writers OSLO, Norway--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 6, 2000 Opera Software today unleashed Opera 5.0 for Windows, making its Web browser The program that serves as your front end to the Web on the Internet. In order to view a site, you type its address (URL) into the browser's Location field; for example, www.computerlanguage.com, and the home page of that site is downloaded to you. available for free for the many millions of surfers around the world that are longing for a faster, better Internet experience. With this move the popular browser enters the reignited Browser War in full force as a third player besides AOL/Netscape and Microsoft's Internet Explorer Microsoft's Web browser, which comes with Windows starting with Windows 98. Commonly called "IE," versions for Mac and Unix are also available. Internet Explorer is the most widely used Web browser on the market. It has also been the browser engine in AOL's Internet access software. . Opera has long been known has "the third browser" on Windows, with around 1.5 million users. This position was achieved while still charging users per license, and spending almost no resources on marketing. The new sponsor-supported version offers users a $39 value in return for having one single banner ad A graphic image used on Web sites to advertise a product or service. Banner ads come in numerous sizes, but are often rectangles 460 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. Also 460 x 55 and 392 x 72 sizes are commonly used. in the browser UI. "Today Opera's status as just an alternative browser for the most Internet savvy users is ending, and we place ourselves firmly in the middle of the on-going Browser War," says Jon S. von Tetzchner, CEO (1) (Chief Executive Officer) The highest individual in command of an organization. Typically the president of the company, the CEO reports to the Chairman of the Board. , Opera Software. "From today everyone will have the opportunity to get the best Internet experience available completely for free," he ends. The Opera Web browser has been developed over a period of 5 years into the fastest, best Internet experience available in the market. The speed is achieved both through how fast it renders pages, but also in its functionality. "The ad-feature will not slow Opera down, nor diminish the Internet experience" says Hakon Lie, Chief Technology Officer, Opera Software, "The banner-sized ad is quite small, and they are downloaded into the browser only once a week, to be cached for later use. This ensures the recognizable Opera-speed in the browsing itself, as well as not too intrusive ads. Also, every necessary precaution has been taken to ensure privacy," he ends. Opera Software enters the free-browser field intent on winning. Opera will be distributed on millions of CDs accompanying computer magazines around the world, as well as by other software makers and some of the Internet's major Web sites. "With their latest releases, Microsoft and AOL/Netscape have focused on strengthening the integration of their browser, portal and ISP (1) See in-system programmable. (2) (Internet Service Provider) An organization that provides access to the Internet. Connection to the user is provided via dial-up, ISDN, cable, DSL and T1/T3 lines. services, putting them in direct competition with independent portals, ISPs and contents sites from around the world," says Dean Kakridas, Manager of Strategic Alliances, "This offers a pure browser developer like Opera Software great opportunities to serve these companies fully customized, co-branded browsers versions of its browser. Any company that is brand-conscious, traffic-hungry and content-rich will find the Opera browser a valuable tool to further serve its user-base," he ends. On installation, Opera defaults to the Sponsored mode. However, the user always has the option of switching to the Paid/ Registered mode and turn off the ad experience and the communication with the advertising service. The cost to do so remains at $39, with various discounts applying. With the release of Opera 5.0 for Windows so close to the version 4.0 release at the end of June this year, Opera Software signals a much quicker pace of development. Opera 4.0 for Windows was released end of June 2000, and was a great success with over 1 million downloads in the first two weeks. Powerful Features for the Best Internet Experience Opera offers several benefits over its competitors for a better Internet experience: -- Fast rendering of pages. Opera is the fastest full-featured browser on the market today. -- Easy keyboard navigation. Opera's easy keyboard shortcuts save time as well as benefit people with disabilities. -- Instant toggling of image and documents settings. For even faster browsing, images can be turned on/off with just the press of a key. -- Multiple windows support. Inside Opera, users may browse in several windows at once, without straining system resources. -- High quality Zooming. Opera users can zoom in on a page up to a 1000%, be it text or images. -- Resume download. In the transfer window, downloads can be resumed if interrupted. -- Small size. Opera is only a 1.95 MB download (Adding Java is a one-time 7 MB download) so updating to the latest version available is always fast and easy. -- Integrated news, mail, search and Instant Messaging. New in the 5.0 version is a powerful search capability, as well as an Instant Messaging client. In the search feature, users can easily migrate between the most popular search engines, and search for terms, domain names, music, Mp3s, images, video, audio, stock quotes, books or company information. -- The newly integrated Instant Messaging client offers users the possibility to chat with all ICQ users. Standards Compliant. Opera continues its commitment to the standards as laid out by the W3C (World Wide Web Consortium, www.w3.org) An international industry consortium founded in 1994 by Tim Berners-Lee to develop standards for the Web. It is hosted in the U.S. by the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) at MIT (www.csail.mit.edu/index.php). . Opera 5.0 for Windows support the following technologies: 128-bit encryption, TLS (1) (Transport Layer Security) A security protocol from the IETF that is based on the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) 3.0 protocol developed by Netscape. TLS uses digital certificates to authenticate the user as well as authenticate the network (in a wireless 1.0, SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) The leading security protocol on the Internet. Developed by Netscape, SSL is widely used to do two things: to validate the identity of a Web site and to create an encrypted connection for sending credit card and other personal data. 2 and 3, CSS (1) See Cascading Style Sheets. (2) (Content Scrambling System) The copy protection system applied to DVDs, which uses a 40-bit key to encrypt the movie. 1 and CSS2, XML XML in full Extensible Markup Language. Markup language developed to be a simplified and more structural version of SGML. It incorporates features of HTML (e.g., hypertext linking), but is designed to overcome some of HTML's limitations. , HTML HTML in full HyperText Markup Language Markup language derived from SGML that is used to prepare hypertext documents. Relatively easy for nonprogrammers to master, HTML is the language used for documents on the World Wide Web. 4.01, HTTP HTTP in full HyperText Transfer Protocol Standard application-level protocol used for exchanging files on the World Wide Web. HTTP runs on top of the TCP/IP protocol. 1.1, ECMAScript, JavaScript 1.3, experimental support for DOM and WAP/ WML (Wireless Markup Language) A tag-based language used in the Wireless Application Protocol (WAP). WML is an XML document type allowing standard XML and HTML tools to be used to develop WML applications. It evolved from Openwave's HDML, but WML is not a superset of HDML. . Opera has built in plug-in support. Opera supports Netscape's API (Application Programming Interface) A language and message format used by an application program to communicate with the operating system or some other control program such as a database management system (DBMS) or communications protocol. , making it easy for developers to migrate between the two platforms. Sponsor Mode with the Users in Mind. Opera's new Sponsored mode is designed to provide users with the best possible advertising experience. Ads appear one at a time in the browser UI, and their categories are easily modified in the Advertising section in Preferences. The goal is to serve advertising that users will want to see, akin to letting users turn on the TV and choose to see for example just car commercials. Opera Software has implemented strict guidelines to ensure that the ads are not unnecessarily distracting or offensive. Advertisements with sound, offensive content and/or language are not allowed. Protecting Privacy Opera Software is also taking steps to protect the privacy of personal information. Users are not required to provide any up-front profiling information in order to receive the new Opera Web browser. On a purely voluntary basis, users will be asked to profile themselves in the browser itself so that the advertising they receive will be more relevant. This profile information is not personally-identifying, and it will not be shared with any third parties. These demographics will only be used for targeting advertising. For more information on privacy, go to www.opera.com/privacy. Availability Beginning today, Opera 5.0 for Windows is available for download at www.opera.com. Opera Software plans to localize lo·cal·ize v. lo·cal·ized, lo·cal·iz·ing, lo·cal·iz·es v.tr. 1. To make local: decentralize and localize political authority. 2. the new 5.0 release into other languages, and support non-Latin characters by Q1 2001. New Features in Opera 5.0 for Windows New functionality in the 5.0 release includes: Integrated search and Instant Messaging Exchanging text messages in real time between two or more people logged into a particular instant messaging (IM) service. Instant messaging is more interactive than e-mail because messages are sent immediately, whereas e-mail messages can be queued up in a mail server for seconds or , support for new JavaScript versions, mail and stability, improvements in memory usage and accessibility to different Web sites. About Opera Software Opera Software AS is an industry leader in the development of Web browsers The following is a list of web browsers. Historical Historically important browsers In order of release:
A firm whose shares are held within a relatively small circle of owners and are not traded publicly. headquartered in Oslo, Norway. Learn more about Opera at www.opera.com |
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