Remember the Microsoft-Yahoo deal? I am sure you do, but I have to add that, in fact, that was no deal, because Microsoft got rejected, as most of us were expecting to happen. After hearing that Microsoft may still have Yahoo targeted, I really had no idea what to think anymore. To make matters even worse, various "outside forces" are trying to force Yahoo into accepting to become a part of Microsoft, but today, hopefully, everything has just come to an end!

<-125x125 Button - left->
Let's leave the past behind now. Why? Well, some previous rumors were saying that Yahoo and Google could get together, so Google services would be used by Yahoo. Now, that has been confirmed. As the official press release says, Google "announced that it has reached an agreement that gives Yahoo! the ability to use Google's search and contextual advertising technology through its AdSense™ for Search and AdSense for Content advertising programs. Under the agreement, Yahoo! has the option to display Google ads alongside its own natural search results in the U.S. and Canada. In addition, Yahoo! can serve contextually targeted ads on its U.S. and Canadian web properties as well as on its current publisher partner sites. Yahoo will continue to operate its own search engine, web properties and advertising services."

Bye bye, wicked Microsoft!

...but wait, there's even more - "In addition, Yahoo! and Google agreed to enable interoperability between their respective instant messaging services bringing easier and broader communication to users."

I guess we should all wait and see how this works in the long term, but I am sure everything will be just fine. I love the interoperability part the most. Obviously, I would also love to see Steve Ballmer's face when he got the news. That would really be priceless! What about you?

At last, since I said "long term," here's what we know: "The agreement has a term of up to ten years: a 4-year initial term and two 3-year renewals at Yahoo!’s option. Financial terms between the two companies were not disclosed."

Godspeed, Google, and godspeed, Yahoo! The future just got a bit more interesting...

Do you hate Opera? I know too many people that don't like it, and in the last weeks, it even started to piss me off, although I use it as my primary Web browser. Anyway, we'll talk about my issues with Opera 9.27 a bit later, because there's quite a lot to say.

Now, it's enough to say that the long-awaited Opera 9.5 browser was released today, and since it was a pleasure to update it, I will share my experience with you, while trying to come up with one of the first Opera 9.5 reviews on the Web, and - hopefully - the first honest review, and written from the point of view of an old Opera user.

Setup

When I tried to use the built in update feature, I ended up with a strange message saying that Opera 9.5 wasn't available in my language, although I had the English version. As I saw this, I thought that backing up all my current Opera setup would be a good idea, so I started packing the Opera folder(primitive yet effective backup approach, when talking about Opera), after downloading the setup package from the Opera 9.5 download page, of course.

<-234x60 Half Banner - left->As you can see above, the first thing that strikes you in the face is the new Welcome screen of the setup program. It's new, I know, and despite the fact I've seen better, this one is simple, yet stylish, and has black and red - one of my favorite color combinations...



OK, so you should - obviously - select the "Upgrade" option when asked, if you are already using Opera, then move on. I had no special problems while updating to Opera 9.5, and I guess you shouldn't, either.



At last, be sure that "Run Opera when I press Finish" is checked, press "Finish," and get ready to rock!

Interface

To be honest, I don't see anything that special with Opera 9.5, when looking at it. Some icons have been changed, the Status Bar got a few new features, but it's not what I expected. So...what was I expecting? I can't exactly tell why, but I had in mind that Opera 9.5 will have a completely overhauled interface. Good for me, that's not true.



Anyway, since after updating, I remained with my heavily customized layout I had before, it's not a surprise that I still feel like using Opera 9.27, except the fact that now...everything is much, much better, as we're going to see right away!

Features

Features, just great! Now, let's leave the features nicely aligned, waiting to be checked, because I have to tell you about the problems I had with Opera 9.27 lately, problems which are now gone.

As we all know, Internet Explorer can be anything but a memory hog, which is not true with Firefox, for example, which is a very good browser, but a huge memory hog. Unfortunately, the same is true with Opera. Well, "it was," because while Opera 9.27 was using over 300MB of memory most of the time, in some cases even going above 500MB, Opera 9.5 only uses about 200MB, most of the time less, and that's in the same conditions - with about 40 websites loaded simultaneously.



In the last few months, Opera 9.27 kept crashing on me on a regular basis. Most of these crashes were not random, since I noticed that, as an example, when trying to download from certain FTP servers, Opera would crash. Opera 9.5 didn't crash so far, but I guess I'll have to think about this again in a month or two.

Next, we have YouTube and other similar sites. What's about them? Embedded Flash video players, of course. OK, what's that special with them? Well, lately I wasn't able to play any video content in Opera, because it kept freezing the video, and I had no sound. Obviously, same sites worked great in other browsers.

At last, there's speed and low CPU load when playing browser-based Flash games or video content. Opera 9.5 is much better than its predecessor at first sight, and I need no tests to prove that!

Since I said "tests," let's see how does Opera 9.5 handle the Acid tests, shall we? Anyway, don't expect screenshots, because it's enough to give you the scores and links to do the tests for yourselves, so here we go: Acid1 - perfect, Acid2 - perfect, and Acid3 - 83/100. As a side note, it's enough to say that, in Acid3, Firefox 2 scores 53/100, while Safari 3 reaches an impressive 75/100.

Opera has all the features you'd need from a modern browser, and even more - BitTorrent support built into the download manager, custom content blocking, tabs and sessions, mouse gestures, quick find, and others, but there are only two things worth being mentioned before I draw the conclusions...

First, there's the new browser engine, which Opera claims to be "More than 2x faster than Opera 9.2 in rendering JavaScript and HTML." I didn't use a timer to compare loading times, but it's surely faster, as I said before. This new browser engine comes together with a very useful Opera Link feature which allows you to sync your bookmarks between mobile phone, computer, and even more than just that.

Second, there's Opera Fraud Protection. Phishing, malware? No more! As you can see above, a dangerous site is market so you can't miss it. Just keep your eyes on the address bar, and be sure to report any malicious websites you pass by, if they are not recognized by the browser as "evil."

That should be it for now. I know there's a lot left to say, so feel free to draw your own conclusions, but first, let's see mine!

Final Thoughts

What do you think I should say about Opera 9.5? I love it! It wasn't about writing the Opera 9.5 review, after all. In the end, it was about restoring a user's faith into a program that started to become a bit of a disappointment. Did it work? Oh, yeah!

Opera 9.5 is faster, more secure and more reliable than before. Opera Link is a handy addition, and Opera Fraud Protection is one of the first bricks added to the foundation of a safer Web for everyone.

Weak spots? Good question! Probably there are still a lot of websites that won't display properly in Opera, simply because they were build for IE 6, in most cases, but I still have to bump into such sites, at least with Opera 9.5.

Leave the past behind, and forget anything you heard about Opera until today. Opera has just reborn, and if someone would ask me to choose a nickname for Opera 9.5, that would surely be "Phoenix." I'll be here, waiting for your own impressions regarding the best browser in the world today. That's it!

Developer: Opera Software ASA
Price: free
Full version download: Download

As far as I know, "carpet bombing" has nothing to do with computing. Developed by the British head of Bomber Command, Air Vice Marshal Arthur "Bomber" Harris, and copied by the United States, this is a strategy that is aiming at weakening morale and destroying entire cities. Since World War II, things have changed a lot, and now we're in a full scale war against malware, including attack codes used to exploit various weaknesses of computer software. Unfortunately, today Apple has been hit by such an attack, only a day after updating QuickTime and fixing some issues with that program...


<-234x60 Half Banner - left->OK, now here's the secret link between carpet bombing and computer software - a hacker just made public attack code that can be used to exploit critical flaws in both Safari and Internet Explorer, and the Safari bug that's being targeted allows attackers to mess with the executable files located on the desktop of the victim, this being an attack known as "carpet bombing." Got it know?The interesting part comes when talking about the fixes for these problems, because Microsoft seems to beat Apple on this one. How's that possible? Well, the Safari bug was discovered on the 15th of May, and it seems they have no plans to patch it, while Microsoft released a security advisory regarding this problem on the 30th of May, so they'll probably come up with a fix pretty soon.Oh, my...whatta pity! Anyway, I won't stop using Safari for Windows yet. After all, there's no perfect browser yet, and while Safari may not be the safest one, it surely has a lot of other qualities!