As a developer I naturally lean towards Firefox when it comes to browser choice. But Opera 9.2 Web browser is something to take note of, you have to like it regardless of your open source love or hate. Opera 9.2 is a cross platform browser. You will be shocked, if I say Opera 9.2 supports almost all the popular OS, which are not supported by IE or FF. Opera 9.2 is compatible with- Windows, Solaris Sparc, Solaris Intel, QNX, OS/2, MacOS, Linux Sparc, Linux PowerPC, Linux i386, FreeBSD i386, BeOS. You got to admit that’s a long list of compatibility. The key features of Opera 9.2-

Speed Dial The coolest and unique feature of Opera 9.2 is Speed Dial. So what does this Speed Dial do? As the name suggests, it gives you quick access to your favorite/frequently visited sites via keyboard shortcuts or thumbnail click. Speed Dial appears in any new tabbed window you create in Opera. It’s a new way to provide users with quick access to favorite Web sites when a new tab is opened. The new window features nine thumbnails for Web sites you visit frequently. Clicking on any of the thumbnails causes Opera to show you the full Web page. Alternatively, you can open pages by pressing Ctrl+1 through 9. Say it isn’t cool enough? There are more in Opera 9.2, read on. (Click on thumbnail to see larger image).

Fraud Protection & security Opera 9.2 has its built-in advanced fraud protection, which protects you against web sites that try to steal your personal information. The demo of fraud protection feature, provided by Opera Software is self-explanatory. The browser supports SSL v2 and SSL v3, and also the successor to SSL v3, TLS 1. It has built-in support for full 128-bit encryption, keeping your online transactions safe from prying eyes. (Click on thumbnail to see larger image).

Integrated BitTorrent Fan of downloading music videos? Movies? Well that means you must be using some torrent clients already. Opera 9.2 just saved you from all those hassle, find the torrent you wish to download and click, rest leave it to Opera 9.2′s built in BitTorrent.

Content blocker Opera 9.2 has the easiest yet effective way to block annoying contents like ads, animations etc. Remove ads or images – it’s up to you. Right-click (CTRL-click on the Mac) on the Web page and choose “Block content”. See that wasn’t hard at all, you didn’t have to even search through option panel’s to do that.

Mouse gesture This is Opera’s unique feature, where let your mouse express where to go (well almost!). Opera’s amazing mouse gestures lets you do frequently performed browse operations with small, quick mouse movements. Some operations can be done with several different gestures. There are navigation gestures, link gestures, window gestures and wheel gestures.

Keyboard shortcuts You can browse a lot faster using the keyboard, well at least me and people with limited vision. Keyboard shortcuts, like mouse gestures – make your browsing faster and more efficient. Opera 9.2′s keyboard shortcut lists are here.

Voice For people with low vision or no vision there is nothing better than a voice activated browser for web browsing. The Opera Voice feature allows the user to control the interface by talking and to have documents read aloud. But there is limitation to this feature, it works on Windows 2000 and XP only and English is the only interface language.

Accessibility tools Opera 9.2 supports any Web page’s content zoom from 20%-1000%, just by using “+” and “-”keys. Not only that, you can also change text size and color, link styling or background color to your liking in Tools > Preferences > Web pages. Opera also have user style sheet support; Opera comes with a set of ready-made style sheets, including accessibility style. Last but not the least

Developer’s tools Opera 9.2 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. Graphics and style sheets can be toggled on/off via our toolbars and shortcuts. And developers will love to see that they can validate the HTML code of any Web page by pressing Ctrl+Alt+V.

These are just half of what Opera 9.2 holds for you. Opera 9.2 is a browser with serious touch of technology and innovation.

Downside

Ok enough about the perks, how about talking some of the flaws/ downside of opera 9.2. I have used the browser over two weeks, and experienced following issues-

• The bookmark manager still medieval, they could have improve it, so that it’s easier to manage or someone with lot of bookmarks.
• Occasional rendering & redirection problems, such as when ordering some stuffs on amazon.com. doesn’t redirect to my iGoogle when I’m already logged in to my Google account.
• Usually Opera is known for lightening fast speed,but not always. Super sluggish navigating of large pages, forums with large number of comments.
• Sometimes ignores a site’s instructions to not cache a dynamic page
• hard to tell which tab is active in the default theme. (Color Contrast Issue)

Every browsers have their fare share of pros and cons, Opera 9.2 isn’t so different. Overall, I think Opera might have what it takes to unseat even the biggest-name browsers if users give it the opportunity.