Would you like to increase the speed of
your Internet surfing?
Would you like to be able to use the Internet without fear of spyware
or adware attack?
Are you fed up with the frequent security patches you need to install
for Internet Explorer?
Would you like to be able to automatically continue from where you left
off the last time you were on the Internet?
Are you tired of your computer locking up or crashing when you use the
internet?
If you can answer yes to any of the above questions I have a solution
for you. All you need to do is upgrade to a more advanced Internet
browser than Internet Explorer, and what's more this won't cost you
anything either.
Opera is also more secure than Internet Explorer for example go
to secunia.com/product/11/
or look at the graphs below to see how many problems still haven't been
fixed by Microsoft. (These graphs are direct from Secunia so should be up to
date.)
A large number of unpatched problems could lead to your computer being
crippled by malicious software when you surf the Internet. If these
problems are
considered critical you are more likely to be attacked.
For comparison, at the time of writing the few
problems Opera had, have all been fixed; secunia.com/product/10615/.
Opera also has many features to make the Internet quicker and easier to
use. As well as doing what Internet Explorer is capable of, Opera adds
to what is possible on the Internet. Of course it has a pop-up blocker,
which is a feature that
Microsoft have only just got around to including in the latest version
of IE6. Some of my favourite innovative features include:
Tabbed Browsing
- this means every new web page you open will open
within the same program. This means that you can shut Opera down and
when you reopen it, all the pages you were using will open up exactly
where you left off. You can also duplicate the current page you are
using will all its history intact, plus if you accidentally close a
page it is very easy to reinstate without any hassle.
Mouse Gestures
- this is a very quick way to navigate your way through
websites. For example, when you want to go back to the previous page
you were on, instead of moving the pointer up to the top of the browser
to click the back button, all you need do is hold down the right mouse
button and drag the pointer to the left slightly then release.
Gestures work with many other operations such as forward, close page,
open link in new window, refresh page and duplicate page. This is very
useful and you will find yourself trying to use mouse gestures in other
programs and then being annoyed when the other program doesn't have
this feature.
Password Wand
- it remembers your passwords and user ids. It will then fill them in
for you and automatically take you to the next page all with one click
(or Ctrl+Enter).
Zoom -
if you've ever been to a website which uses very small text you
will understand how useful this feature can be. Simply press the + key
to zoom in on the webpage and the whole page will increase in size,
graphics and photos included. (The - key reduces the size and the * key
returns it to the original size.)
Voice
- you can use your voice to tell Opera what you want to do or
have webpages read to you. If you're fed up with sitting in front of
the computer you can get up and walk around whilst Opera reads to you.
Full-screen Mode
- just press the F11 key to view the website
completely full-screen. Use this along side mouse gestures and press 1
or 2 to move between pages (right mouse button and scroll wheel also
works).
Fit Window to Width
- if a page is too wide for the browser window,
simply press one button (or Ctrl+F11) to make it fit so you can see
everything at the
same time and lose the horizontal scroll bar.
This is just a small example of the features available in Opera which
make the Internet faster and easier to use. Go here
for a
more comprehensive list, or you could just try it for yourself and it's
only a small download at about 6MB.
It is also possible to block advert banners on the websites you visit. Simply right click on the web page (but not on the graphic of advert itself) and select 'Block content'. Then just click on the images you want to remove.
I don't receive any income for recommending the Opera browser. This
page is primarily directed towards the users of Internet
Explorer to inform them that better ways of using the Internet are
available. If you use Firefox then you will already know this. I find
Opera to be a better browser as it contains a lot of features as
standard which would require many extensions in Firefox if they are
available at all, but the choice will ultimately depend on what you
need from a browser. If you find that for some strange
reason you don't
like Opera, I would recommend you give Firefox a try instead.
