The Opera web browser is one of the oldest in the world and has long been one of the most popular browsers on mobile phones, to the popularization of smartphones.

The fact is that despite the years that Opera has been competing against Internet Explorer, Firefox, Safari or Chrome (formerly with Mozilla and other browsers that few have passed away in recent years) Opera Software, the Norwegian company that develops the Opera browser, do not throw in the towel.

Quite the contrary. Opera web browser is defined as the alternative for those who want a better browser. And this new version of Opera, numbered 15, is intended for those who want a web browser especially lighter and simpler, with a clear and clean interface.

Opera 15 vs. Opera 12
Somehow, and at least for now, Opera 15 is a parallel version to the latest version of Opera 12 which is still available. It could be considered a simplified version of this. In fact this has caused confusion and anger in equal parts among the stalwarts of this web browser. On the one hand Opera 15 lacks many features of Opera 12 (starting with the favorites) and secondly renames some functions like Opera Turbo (in Opera 12) called Terrain Mode in Opera 15.

Opera 15 is based on Chromium, open source
Curiously Opera version is based on Chromium, the open source web browser which is also based on Google's Chrome Web browser, thus dispensing with proprietary technology used in previous versions.

Key features of Opera 15
Opera 15 debuts Discover function, which lets you start navigating suggesting content and related pages a dozen themes (cars, lifestyle, fashion, news, technology, sports ...) that can be filtered according to the tastes and preferences of each.

These contents can further suggested the language or languages ​​chosen and / or countries of publications. It is possible, for example, choose sports news sites published in Spain. However it is not possible to mix sources in different languages, but the language "Global" collects news from around the world.

It also ignores the search box and combine this with the address bar, although Opera 12, as in other web browsers, you can search directly in the address bar. In Opera 15 to start the search used the search engine (Google, Yahoo, Amazon and Wikipedia, among others) can be changed quickly by pressing the corresponding icon appears next to the list of suggested search terms.

New Opera 15 is the 'shelf', an attempt to reinvent the Opera bookmarks or favorites, and incidentally to combat the problem that potentially poses countless tabs open in the browser. In this way you may be leaving Opera pages that interest on the shelf to read later, similar to how it works but the markers to another approach.

An interesting and is well resolved to adjust the size of the thumbnails to see the contents of the shelf as a list or as thumbnails of pages (and even complete windows) so that it is easier to re-locate.

From the bookshelf is possible to pass a saved page to the list of Quick Access pages, a "speed dial" to get to the most commonly used pages. Pages on the Quick Access on Opera 15 can organize folders (grouping different links in one quick score), which would be interesting to do well on the shelf to organize thematically open links, but that is not possible.

As in previous versions of Opera, the browser has a function for compressing pages receiving the browser, which theoretically speeds up browsing. Is spatially useful in situations where you use a slow connection or data traffic mobile Internet. With this function all Internet browsing is done through Opera's servers, which compress the pages so that the transfer to the user's computer 'even' less. The function is called Terrain mode, which in other versions of this browser is called Opera Turbo.

Compatible with Chrome extensions
The fact that Opera now use Chromium as a web browser based means it is compatible with the extensions developed for Chrome web browser. But it also means that Opera 15 does not support the extensions that existed for previous versions of Opera.

Absences in Opera 15
In addition to the aforementioned absence of the favorites in format "classic" Opera 15 lacks support to read, view or manage RSS feeds of websites that use this channel to send the new content as they are published.

Opera also has support for Adobe Flash if it is not installed on the user's computer. This is common in other web browsers except Chrome, which is capable of playing Flash content even though it is not installed on your computer. But in the case of Opera 15 the problem is that neither can see no force or run the HTML5 alternative that is what happens for example using the Safari web browser on Mac computers, iPhone and iPad, without Flash.

Although Opera 15 is a version devoid of many functions common Opera and other browsers, its main attraction is its speed, which can be seen from the moment you press the icon to open it-and its appearance, clean and devoid of features superfluous for most of the users. Opera 15 web browser is probably the most simple and lightweight and easy to use there now, which may appeal to many people.