Opera is a cross-platform, fully featured web browser renowned for its speed, elegant user-interface and versatility. Opera includes tabbed browsing, pop-up blocking, an integrated search engine, an e-mail client, and a Speed Dial feature giving users quick access to their favorite websites. Along with easy-to-use customization tools, Opera also offers voice controlled browsing to support disabled users.

Opera was initially launched as a research project in 1994 by Telenor, the largest telecommunications company in Norway, who in 1995 set up a separate company dedicated to developing Opera and working towards its first public release. This came in 1996 with version 2.0, which was only compatible with Windows at the time. Early features included support for HTML 3.0, multiple graphics formats, session saving and restoring, and a built-in page zoom function.

Version 3.0, released in late 1997, introduced pop-up blocking, SSL support for encrypted connections, and plug-in capabilities. Tabbed browsing arrived with version 4.0, along with an integrated e-mail and news client. At this stage Opera was distributed as trialware with advertisements.

With the release of version 5.0, Opera became freeware. Version 6.0 introduced customizable skins and improved pop-up blocking. Opera 8.0 added the unique feature of voice controlled navigation, further highlighting its support for accessibility. Advertisements were removed entirely starting with version 8.5.

Opera 9.0 proved especially popular due to its fast browsing performance, Speed Dial, built-in BitTorrent support, and low bandwidth mode designed for slower internet connections. Opera 10.0 expanded customization options, introduced Opera Turbo to improve browsing speeds on slow connections, added visual mouse gestures, and achieved a perfect score on the Acid3 standards compliance test. Versions 11.0 and 12.0 continued to refine performance, added password synchronization, and featured a more streamlined user interface.

According to Opera Software, development during this period focused on speed, standards compliance, and offering advanced features not commonly found in other browsers at the time.