Opera Wednesday: Browser Downloads in Europe Have Doubled this Month
I am proclaiming today Opera Wednesday and shifting all my attention to the company that makes what I consider to be the most innovative browser on the market today. And I’m going to kick things off with the news that Opera browser downloads in Europe have doubled this month.
Opera Software announced in a press release that downloads of the Opera 10.5 browser in Europe have more than doubled this month, ever since Microsoft introduced the “choice screen” – the ballot screen presented to Windows users in Europe that have Internet Explorer set as default; the ballot screen presents a total of 12 browsers; the user can view additional details and install any of the browsers presented in the ballot screen.
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According to Opera Software, more than half of the European downloads came directly from the choice screen. “This confirms that when users are given a real choice on how they choose the most important piece of software on their computer, the browser, they will try out alternatives,” said Håkon Wium Lie, CTO of Opera Software. “A multitude of browsers will make the Web more standardized and easier to browse.”
Keep in mind that Microsoft rolled out the choice screen this March – in a relatively short amount of time, browser downloads have doubled. The choice screen will continue to be presented to users in Europe well into the month of May; and it will be presented to new Windows users for the next 5 years. We can only expect Opera’s userbase to increase.
Here are some of the bits and pieces that make Opera 10.5 an interesting download: - A sleek, minimalist user interface - Private browsing mode that lets you surf the web safe in the knowledge that Opera 10.5 will not store any info about your session. - Smarter address field that displays matching results from history, bookmarks and “even actual content on the pages you have visited.” - The new Search field lets you use different search engines and Web-site searches. - Windows 7 support - Run Opera widgets as a separate process, out of the browser. - Improved standards support for HTML5 and CSS3 - Improved JavaScript performance, about 8 times faster than previous versions.
If you would like to get the Opera browser, you can download the browser here.
I am proclaiming today Opera Wednesday and shifting all my attention to the company that makes what I consider to be the most innovative browser on the market today. And I’m going to kick things off with the news that Opera browser downloads in Europe have doubled this month.