Choose Opera

This contest has been the topic of discussion since June last year (and most likely even longer). The goal of this contest is to find out who can create the best User JavaScript in the following two categories:

• Best site enhancement
• Best tool (in general)

The best User JavaScript overall will be awarded with a brand new HTC Touch Diamond™ with Opera Mobile 9.5 pre-installed.

Guidelines:

We've defined a set of guidelines which will help us evaluate submissions, but also assist you in creating a winning entry. We recommend everyone have a look in the User JavaScript tutorials hosted on userjs.org, but also our own "Take control with User JavaScript" guides are a solid read.

• The script must not create variables or functions in the global scope or leak information to the page it runs in (anonymous functions).
• The script must not modify Object.prototype properties.
• Any changes to a site's own scripts or DOM should be as small as possible and as resilient to site changes as possible.
• Sites that are enhanced / fixed must be publicly available. If user accounts are required, registration must be free.
• You're free to participate in either one or both categories.
• Deadline is Tuesday, July 15th.

In addition, the script must be well documented / commented:

• What is being fixed or enhanced?
• How does the fix or enhancement work?
• How can we test the script?

To submit your entry, please use this competition form. The User JavaScript file can be hosted (for example) on your own My Opera files account (zip the folder along with documentation and upload). Please include a short summary about your User JavaScript along with a download link. All entries will be revised by Opera staff.

We've created a forum post for any questions or comments you may have regarding this contest.

Good luck, everyone! We can't wait to see those great submissions!

Beautifully engineered

Today we released the final public release of our flagship Web browser, Opera 9.5. Opera's cross-device expertise, support for open Web standards and commitment to speed and performance has culminated into our most powerful browser yet.

What's new in Opera 9.5:

Opera Link: Your bookmarks, Speed Dial and even notes taken in the Opera browser can follow you anywhere. Opera Link keeps you synchronized between any Opera 9.5 desktop browser and Opera Mini, Opera's free browser for your mobile phone. In Opera 9.5 write a note - copy directions, create shopping lists or jot down anything you need to remember - and access it on any Opera 9.5 browser by simply logging in.

Find anything: Remember a word from a page you've read earlier? Find that page easily with Quick Find. Just enter a word in the address bar to find matching text from any page you have visited.

Looking sharp: Opera makes a move to modernize its look and feel to a sharp new skin with clean lines and clear icons. The 'New Tab' button and other elements have been modified to make the switch to a better Web experience more intuitive. You may also select any of our platform-specific skins to help Opera's appearance adapt to your operating system of choice.

Strengthened defense against malware and phishing: Opera's Fraud Protection not only protects you from fraudulent Web sites, it is now the first browser publically available to protect you from malware and other malicious software on the Web. Powered by Haute Secure, Netcraft, and PhishTank, Opera's Fraud Protection technology automatically blocks offending Web pages to keep you out of harm's way.

Speed: Opera continues to lead in performance. Opera 9.5 makes dramatic speed improvements to the e-mail client, RSS feeds and the browser itself, so you can spend more time getting things done online.

Of course Opera 9.5 includes many features Opera users have already come to know and love. Speed Dial, notes, the ability to save and restore browsing sessions after you close the browser, a trash can for accidentally closed tabs or e-mails, mouse gestures and many others bring a fresh approach to browsing the Web. Discover Opera for yourself today.

"Opera 9.5 represents the culmination of two years spent listening to our community and transforming our browser to add features and capabilities they have requested," said Jon von Tetzchner, CEO, Opera. "Opera 9.5 offers new possibilities and capabilities. It's faster, lighter and pushes us further out in front of other browsers, by blending the mobile and desktop worlds together in new and powerful ways. We invite everyone to join us as we continue to shape the way the Web will evolve."

Download:

Opera is a free download from http://www.opera.com/

Community

Now that Opera 9.5 is released we want you help us spread the word. If anyone has promoted Opera 9.5, please let us know here as a comment and we'll add your effort to a list of contributions.

Also, feel free to use any of our new Kestrel wallpapers. Add a download banner to your blog, or any other social networking site you're a member of to support the good cause!

If you think this is good, then help us digg it!

New wallpapers

• 1600x1200
• 1280x1024
• 1024x768
• 800x600

Download banners:

Just copy and paste the code provided below each image.

<a href="http://www.opera.com/"><img src="http://files.myopera.com/EspenAO/albums/548363/kestrel_300x250.jpg" width="300" height="250" alt="Opera 9.5 - beautifully engineered" /></a>

<a href="http://www.opera.com/"><img src="http://files.myopera.com/EspenAO/albums/548363/kestrel_750x100.jpg" width="750" height="100"  alt="Opera 9.5 - beautifully engineered" /></a>

<a href="http://www.opera.com/"><img src="http://files.myopera.com/EspenAO/albums/548363/kestrel_728x90.jpg" width="728" height="90" alt="Opera 9.5 - beautifully engineered" /></a>

<a href="http://www.opera.com/"><img src="http://files.myopera.com/EspenAO/albums/548363/kestrel_468x123.jpg" width="468" height="123" alt="Opera 9.5 - beautifully engineered" /></a>

<a href="http://www.opera.com/"><img src="http://files.myopera.com/EspenAO/albums/548363/kestrel_468x60.jpg" width="468" height="60" alt="Opera 9.5 - beautifully engineered" /></a>

Good news, everyone! We're in the process of creating a messaging document about the Opera browser, and we really want you to tell us what it should include.

Since there already are many user-generated web sites explaining why people love Opera, we've lacked an official version of it. That's why we we want to assemble all your thoughts into one compact and distilled list of the most persuasive arguments why Opera is the preferred choice among browsers.

You are more than welcome to send us your arguments. We hope everyone will benefit from this document since we will host it from My Opera as an official link, provide printable flyer-versions and several other mediums with your ideas as well. On top of that, we have Oleg Melnichuck, our award-winning designer buddy, volunteered to do the design, so we know it's good!

Prior to finalizing the document we will offer you the opportunity to localize the content to your language/region.

So, if you want to contribute, fill out this form with a list of your best working arguments in the "Competition answer:" field. Everyone is invited to join.

Deadline: Tuesday, June 10th, 2008.

The Opera Community has more than 1 million users, and is growing rapidly. We're looking for an exceptional and experienced system developers to help us grow even more.

You will be working with the Opera Community team to develop and maintain the site and other related cool services. This is a great opportunity for those of you who want to work for Opera and learn from some of the best people in the industry.

Responsibilities

• Developing exciting new features and services on the Opera Community and related websites
• Maintaining the existing Opera Community and related websites
• Making sure both new and existing community services scale to handle our ever-increasing user base

Requirements

• Strong Perl skills
• Experienced in database design and SQL
• Good knowledge of (X)HTML, CSS and Javascript
• Good knowledge of web standards
• Good working knowledge of English, written and spoken
• BS or MS in Computer Science or equivalent experience
• Experience with Linux environments

Ideals (one or more)

• Experience with XML and XSLT
• 3+ years of industry experience developing web applications
• Experience developing large community websites
• Good knowledge of Apache mod_perl

How to apply

For immediate consideration, please apply online.

Read the full "State of the Mobile Web" report.

Help us digg it!

Traffic to social networks comprise almost 40% of the mobile Web according to our "State of the Mobile Web" report, published today. The results both show healthy growth in the numbers of consumers accessing the Web from their mobile devices and provide insight into aggregate consumer preferences when browsing from their phones.

Social networking consumes almost 41% of traffic: The United States, South Africa and Indonesia have more than 60% of their traffic going to social networks. More than 11.9 million people used Opera Mini in March to browse 2.4 billion pages. Thus far, more than 44 million cumulative users have tried Opera Mini. Those 11.9 million people generate more than 33 million MB of data traffic for operators worldwide. One Web will triumph over WAP content: Full Web surfing comprises more than 77% of all traffic. WAP content still generates the remaining 23% of traffic. WAP percentages have declined somewhat as more consumers realize Opera Mini can access rich Web content.

As the world's most popular Web browser for mobile phones, Opera Mini provides an elegant, fast and rich Web browsing experience. While some Web browsers work on only 20 to 30 phone models, Opera Mini runs on more than 700 different handsets, making it the available to the widest range of consumers worldwide. Almost every phone with Java can run Opera Mini.

Data in the report is based on aggregate and anonymous statistics from Opera Mini servers. All percentages are based on a snapshot of the Top 100 sites for each region.