Opera introduces the looks and the performance of an exceptional Web browser.

Address field

An improved address field makes it easier to stay safe on the Web, and it now hides the complexity of long web addresses. It also provides more security information to help you stay safe when browsing; just click the badge for the website to see security information about the site you are visiting.

• All webpages get a badge to the left of the address field. The badge replaces protocols like HTTP, HTTPS, and opera:, which are shown only when focusing on the address field.
• Clicking the badge provides a easy overview of the potentially more complex security state of the current web page.
• Parameters at the end of web addresses are visually hidden until the address field is focused. You can disable this with opera:config#UserPrefs|HideURLParameter if you still want to see the whole address all the time.
• There is now a badge indicating that you are browsing with Opera Turbo on. Clicking this badge gives information about estimated data savings for the Opera Turbo session.

Auto-update

An improvement to auto-update now makes sure you have the latest extensions and Opera Unite applications.

Bookmarks bar

The Opera Bookmarks bar is located directly below the Address bar, and replaces the old Personal bar.

Enabling the new Opera Bookmarks bar

1. Open the "View" menu.
2. Select "Toolbars".
3. Click the check box next to "Bookmarks bar".

If you want the Bookmarks bar to show in the former location of the Personal bar

1. Open the Appearance dialog (Shift + F12) > "Toolbars".
2. Click "Show hidden toolbars while customizing".
3. Above the Address bar a Bookmarks bar appears. Click it once to mark it (a yellow outline will show around the bar).
4. Click "Placement" and select "Top" inside the Appearance dialog.
5. Mark the new Bookmarks bar located below the Address Bar, and choose "Placement Off".
6. Click OK.
7. The Bookmarks bar is now shown in the former location of the Personal bar.

Extensions

Opera extensions offer a way for you to easily add new functionality to your Opera browsing experience. Developers can easily create extensions using open standards (HTML5, CSS, JavaScript) and supported APIs. Opera extensions will be based on the W3C Widget specifications and this is being considered for an Open Standard effort.

• Extensions will now run on secure sites (HTTPS) by default, and we have added a privacy setting where you can allow/disallow extensions to run on secure connections or in privacy mode (disabled by default).
• Extensions now have a preferences page. Both the options page and privacy settings can be accessed from the extensions manager.

Some changes to requirements that will affect currently available extensions include:

• Extensions must include an access request for the pages you want to access with the background-process. You can do this by adding to the config.xml
• Extensions must include an index.html file in the package, or include a in the config.xml.
• Extensions must use broadcastMessage() properly:
  • broadcastMessage() only takes one argument: a string or an object literal.
  • So, use either broadcastMessage("hi"), or broadcastMessage({'say': 'hi' }