Opera 9.5

I've used earlier versions of Opera but removed it because it was quite similar to Firefox. What prompted me to download and install the latest edition was the promise of added security... so I decided to give it a second chance.
Launched Opera 9.5 for the first time and a "Welcome" page is displayed. Opera touts their new "Fraud Protection" feature but at the same time offers instructions on how to disable it. Ironic. Checked out the security protocols that Opera supports for HTTPS sessions and was pleasantly surprised to find out that Opera is TLS1.1 ready. Users are also given the option of deciding what encryption ciphers they want to enable.

The current version of Firefox has a similar mechanism to protect its users from fraud. However, it does not support TLS1.1 yet and does not offer granularity in choosing ciphers. Opera has definitely raised the bar for its competitors.

Thumbnails for tabs? Wow... that's a new one. Hovering your mouse pointer over a browser tab displays a thumbnail of the webpage currently open on that specific tab. You have "Speed Dial" for phones... how about "speed dialing" for webpages? Now that's a new concept. They have pretty interesting Widgets too.

Overall, I'm pleased with the look, feel and speed of this new browser. Firefox is powerful but it can be sluggish at times. I may consider switching over to Opera permanently.