16801 Opera was a tabbed browsing pioneer, and tabs reach a new degree of sophistication with Opera 11's new tab stacking feature that lets you keep clusters of webpages organized in groups. Just drag one tab over another, and they will be grouped together, allowing you to keep literally dozens of webpages open, organized and under control.

Opera has long been my all-round favorite Web browser, and this new beta build of version 11 gives me several more reasons to prefer it.

• Extend Opera with new functionality.
You can browse from the rapidly growing collection of extensions in the Opera extensions catalog just click "Install" next to the ones you want.

• Superbly speedy
Opera claims that Opera 11 renders webpages and crunches code faster than any other browser. I'm not sure it's always faster than Google's Chrome or Safari, but it's certainly in the top-tier of OS X browsers for performance. Opera says their developers have been hard at work fine-tuning the Opera Presto browser engine to put Opera even further ahead in a number of benchmarks, and that i n Opera 11, pages load faster and complex applications run more smoothly.

• A safer address field
Opera's new address field hides the complexity of long web addresses and gives you better control of your security when browsing. Click on the badge for the website to see information about the site you are visiting. You can even get information about Opera Turbo data savings.

• Visual mouse gestures
Mouse gestures are another Opera innovation that has been made easier-to-use with the addition of an interface that guides you. This allows new users to discover the speed and power that mouse gestures offer.

• Enhanced HTML5 support
Support for new standards and HTML5 technologies means that rich, dynamic web applications and multiplayer games can be supported by Opera 11.

• Extended auto-update
A new auto-update system ensures that your extensions and Opera Unite apps are always up to date with the latest enhancements.

• Search predictions from Google
Search suggestions predict queries as you type, making searching quicker and easier. Google search predictions are now built into Opera. When using the search field or searching from the address field with the 'g' search keyword, Google search predictions will appear.

• Plug-ins only on demand
An option has now been added to have plug-ins such as Flash content load only when clicked. This is especially helpful to speed up browsing on computers that have difficulty handling lots of plug-in content.

• Enhanced email in your browser
Apple is one of the two current browsers (Mozilla.org's SeaMonkey being the other) that includes a built-in email client. A new mail panel gives you control over the order in which your accounts and mail items show up. You can just drag items where you want them. The mail panel can also show your mail panel when you are using it and hide when you leave a mail tab.

• Faster installation
Even with its many new features, Opera 11 is 30% smaller than Opera 10.60. That means that Opera downloads more quickly and installs in fewer steps. Getting Opera on your computer is easier than ever.

I downloaded the new beta last evening, and while I'm just getting acquainted with the new tweaks, it's so far looking like another solid hit for Opera. Nice work, folks.

You can Download Opera version 11 beta for Mac OS X at:
http://www.opera.com/browser/next/

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