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The biggest browsers on the market for PCs include Chrome, Firefox and the newly revamped Edge, formerly Internet Explorer. In the second round of thought is when people start talking about Opera and other various websites. Opera is considered to be part of the big four browsers, but in most cases, people ignore it because the usage numbers of the other browsers are so much higher.
However, Opera has been working to beef up its own services so as to increase usage numbers. Nee features and killer performances have been added and for those who have been overlooking the browser for some time, here are reasons not to;
- Stellar performance – the browser has been helped in its performance scores lately, and a browser showdown that was down in 2015 showed that in real world browsing tests, Opera was acting very well. Memory usage and page load times were some of the high points for the browser. In the showdown, Chrome won the top spot but Opera was a close second. Recently, tests of battery usage for all the browsers showed that Edge was the best performer in the battery life statistics with a battery power of 385 minutes. Coming in at third was Opera with 352 minutes of battery life. The browser only lost by 3 minutes to Chrome. In a similar test which was run by Microsoft, Opera was second.
- In-house VPN – Opera recently introduced a new free VPN into its browsers. The option is still available for the developer edition of the browser but it will come to the public soon. The move was as a result of its acquisition of the startup SurfEasy in 2015. VPNs have been used by many people to circumvent many censorship laws, be it enforced by large corporations which want to make a profit or totalitarian governments which want to control what people view on the Internet. VPNs are also safe and secure and protect you from cyber attackers. They give privacy and let people browse in a way they would normally not do.
- Ad blocker – Opera has also added a new ad blocking feature on its browser. The option rolled out in May to the mainstream viewers and public. Ads have been used by many websites as any option to get revenue, they do impact the battery life and loading speeds of certain pages. The feature is not enabled by default on the browser, but when enabled, Opera claims that the loading speed will be three times faster. The first time you open a page in Opera, there is a prompt to switch on the ad blocker.
- Battery busting – Opera also recently introduced a new battery saving technology feature on its browser. It helps, in particular, the older hardware to access the Internet faster. The feature is also used in some cases to reduce the amount of resources the CPU needs from the browser.
Opera has clearly been making attempts to better the app. We just have to wait and see now if their numbers will rise after this.
