BIOS: Technology Means Business

Opera Software has announced that the next version its Web browser will integrate a new extension that can access the BitTorrent search engine and can handle P2P downloads via its ‘Transfer Manager’.

For most people Opera 8.5 wasn’t much of a change compared with 8.0, due to the nature of the release, which was being without ads. Opera 9.0 will continue to be without ads, but will offer significant changes.

The most important of which is that Opera and BitTorrent have signed an agreement covering Opera’s use of the BitTorrent trademark and access to the BitTorrent search engine from the browser’s user interface. A technical preview (TP) of Opera 9.0 is now available for download.

BitTorrent’s technology will be made available to users of the Opera browser in two ways: first, you can search for torrent files in the Opera browser’s integrated search field, and second, when a file has been selected, Opera’s Transfer Manager feature will handle the download.

Opera Software was the first mass-market browser vendor to implement BitTorrent technology. On July 7, 2005, the company launched the first technical preview of the Opera browser (Opera 8.02) which included the BitTorrent protocol. As a result of positive user feedback and further testing, Opera has now decided to maintain BitTorrent in the upcoming Opera 9.0 Web browser.

BitTorrent is an open source, peer-to-peer protocol for distributing files. It makes use of the upstream bandwidth of every downloader to increase the speed and effectiveness of the distribution as a whole. On average, the faster you upload to your peers, the faster you will be able to download.

Because BitTorrent greatly reduces the load on a single server, the technology also benefits organisations with intense download traffic, such as Opera. BitTorrent’s agreement with Opera is the first under a soon-to-be announced conformance program for the use of the BitTorrent trademark.

Opera 9.0 seems to become an exciting release, and it no doubt will be. Unlike Firefox 2, Opera is adding not too many new features at the present time. Opera Software’s approach is by improving the back-end, and adding several new key features it still can win new users over from other browsers.

To ease the transition Opera heavily relies on its base set of rich thought out features and simplifies the graphical user interface, while trying to maintain flexibility for the advanced power user. Will these additions win more Firefox users over? Probably not, as some will be available by default or through extensions. However IE users and Opera users should be very happy with it.

Opera 9.0 TP changelog can be viewed here. The software can be downloaded here. Opera emphasises that the TP should be used for preview purposes only.

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