History of the Opera web browser

The history of the Opera web browser began in 1994 when it was started as a research project at Telenor, the largest Norwegian telecommunications company.

In 1995, the project branched out into a separate company named Opera Software ASA,[1] with the first publicly available version released in 1996.

[3][4] It was known for its multiple document interface (MDI) and 'hotlist' (sidebar), which made browsing several pages at once much easier, as well as being the first browser to completely focus on adhering to the W3C standards.

[citation needed] In February 2013, Opera Software announced that their in-house rendering engine, Presto, would be phased out in favour of WebKit.

[6][7] Due to popular demand, Opera Software showed interest in programming its browser for alternative operating systems such as Apple Macintosh, QNX and BeOS.

[11][12] In 1998, Opera 3.5 was released, adding Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) support,[7] TLS 1.0[13] and file upload capability.

On June 28, 2000,[17] Opera 4 for Windows (Elektra)[18] was released, introducing a new cross-platform core, and a new integrated email client.

[24] On January 28, 2003,[25] Opera 7 was released, introducing the new "Presto" layout engine, with improved CSS, client-side scripting, and Document Object Model (DOM) support.

In the newer versions the user was allowed a choice of generic graphical banners, or text-based targeted advertisements provided by Google based upon the page being viewed.

Opera announced that their browser would be available free of charge and without advertisements, although the company still continued to sell support contracts.

Version 9.1 (released in 2006) introduced fraud protection using technology from GeoTrust, a digital certificate provider, and PhishTank, an organization that tracks known phishing web sites.

[44] Version 9.2, codenamed Merlin, introduced Speed Dial, 3 × 3 small thumbnails which are shown instead of a blank page.

[52] Opera 9.5 has improved support for Cascading Style Sheets (CSS), including many more CSS3 selectors and the CSS2 text-shadow property.

[56][57] Opera 9.5 also supports high-security Extended Validation Certificates[58] and added malware protection through partnership with Haute Secure.

[63] Version 9.6 improved Opera Link with the new opportunity to sync custom search engines and typed history.

Among other features, it also came with speed optimizations, inline spell checking for forms, an auto update feature, HTML mail formatting, web fonts and SVG font support, alpha transparency support using the RGBA and HSLA color models, and an updated version of the Opera Dragonfly web debugger.

The 10.5x versions (codenamed Evenes) also came with a new JavaScript engine, Carakan, and a new graphics backend dubbed Vega (replacing the previously used Qt), that have increased its speed measurably.

Opera 11 (codenamed Kjevik) was released on December 16, 2010 with new features including extensions, tab stacking, visual mouse gestures, new installer (Windows only) and safety improvements to the address field.

[86] On February 12, 2013, Opera Software announced their intention to transition from their Presto layout engine to WebKit, building upon the base of the Chromium project.

This build included the return of geolocation support and automatic form filling, and added a flags page allowing experimental features to be enabled.

[93] On August 8, 2013, Opera 17 entered the Developer stream, reintroducing rocker gestures, tab pinning, start-up options, and search engine management.

[96] On September 11, 2013, Opera 18 entered the Developer stream, with initial features including tab management, theme support and engine updates.

A broken padlock is now shown when sites present invalid security certificates and an option to display the full URL in the address bar was added.

Among the features added in this release were an improved start page look, an improved history manager, the sync of open tabs, sync and manage Speed Dial start pages, an audio indicator on the tab bar, custom keyboard shortcuts and more mouse gestures.

[197][198] One of Opera Mobile Classic's major features is the ability to dynamically reformat web pages to better fit the handheld's display using small screen rendering technology.

[206] Scott Hedrick, an executive of the Opera Software company, explained that the Wii browser was designed to suit a "living room environment".

[207] Notwithstanding the changes in design, the Wii browser supports the same web standards as the desktop version of Opera 9,[207] including passing the Acid2 test.

[211] The Nintendo DS Browser includes the same small screen rendering and page zooming technology present in Opera Mobile.

The technology is simply a professionally maintained proxy server that blocks web sites related to pornography, discrimination, security hacking, software piracy, violence, gambling, illegal drugs, alcohol, tobacco, dating, weapons, abortion, and other content that Nintendo deems objectionable.

[213] Users can configure the Nintendo DS Browser to receive web pages through this proxy server, and this setting can be password-protected (by a parent, for example) to prevent circumvention.