Opera Software released on Tuesday a new version of its browser, Opera 10 with Turbo, promising faster downloads, new design and new features. Opera battles for the spot of third-largest browser maker with Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari, but is far behind Microsoft and Mozilla Foundation.

Opera said the new browser is significantly faster on resource-intensive pages such as Gmail and Facebook, and adds features like full thumbnails of all open tabs. Opera 10 showcases a sleek new design coupled with our new Turbo technology, which keeps Web pages loading faster than competition, even if your connection slows down.

Opera said its Turbo feature for slow connections, which packages web pages, makes the browser up to eight times faster than rival browsers in low connection speeds.

Opera CEO, Jon von Tetzchner, quoted as saying: “We have always worked hard to innovate new ways to improve everyone’s browsing experience. Opera Turbo is our newest innovation, and one we think everyone should try, because we all will face a slow connection at some point. Now, there is a solution, and it is absolutely free. We are excited to offer Opera 10 to the world, and we hope even more people discover what the 40 million people who have already made the switch know: browsing with Opera makes the Web a safer, more enjoyable and more interesting place.”

The companies usually release several successive test versions of their browsers so they can incorporate user feedback in a series of improvements before their final launch. Microsoft launched its latest IE8 browser in March after a year of public beta testing. Opera unveiled a public test version of the browser on June 3.

Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is used for about 60 percent of global Internet traffic, and Mozilla’s Firefox has about 30 percent, with usage of Opera, Google and Apple all around 3 percent each, according to Web analytics firm StatCounter.

Opera has a small share of the global desktop browser market, but its browser is the most popular in countries like Russia or Ukraine, and its Opera Mobile browser is the most widely used on smart phone handsets, allowing them to browse websites like commonly found web browser running on notebook & desktop, just like iPhone with Safari. Download Opera 10 to experience the difference. (Reuters)

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