The Opera Browser has been around for 6 years and was developed in Oslo, Norway. The company markets Opera as an alternative to Internet Explorer and Netscape: "What we have been focusing on is what people have been complaining about on the Internet. They've been saying things are slow. They're not effective enough in utilizing the Internet. And we've been doing things to make things go faster," says Jon von Tetzchner, CEO of Opera Software.

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Most reviews agree Opera is faster, and in general, much smaller than the big name browsers, although the latest version is a lot plumper than the first. Opera also allows for a big number of browser windows to be active and loading at once with little apparent decrease in speed. One of my favorite features is the vast number of keystrokes and shortcuts. You can do just about anything without touching a mouse. Some people are faster with keyboards than mice. That's one reason a few small handheld computers are using Opera as the browser. I like the zoom in/zoom out in 10 percent increments using two keystrokes.

The free version of Opera reserves a small portion of the screen for a banner ad. Or you can buy an ad free version for 39-dollars. Over its six years, Opera has been translated into a lot of languages including a lot of the smaller European languages and it now has versions for almost any operating system, including Linux and Mac OS.

On the downside, Opera has problems displaying some websites, primarily because a lot of sites don't comply with some of the Net standards. It does have a feature that allows it to be "identified" as IE or Netscape. Another problem: plug ins made for IE don't seem to work with Opera.

BROWSE3D

Browse3D is an add on for Internet explorer that may interest people who do a lot of research. It sets up a 3 walled room. The left is where you've been, the center where you are, and to the right where you can go.

It features what the developers call a "sticky Wall." As you find pages you like, make them sticky and they appear together on the wall. David Shuping is President of Browser3D: "I can go to many different websites and save whatever page I want on to the sticky wall. Then when I go to the sticky wall, I can view all of the pages simultaneously."

For example, a search on 1957 Chevys brings up a bunch of links. Choose the links of interest. They pop up on the right wall and are ready when you move over and begin making comparisons, loaded and ready to go.

Another interesting feature is the auto link. Go to a new page and the first 9 links on that page load up on the right wall. This gets you away from the standards forward and back buttons on the typical browser. "One click gets you to a wall. Once click zooms you into a page, once click zooms you back out. It's a simple way to navigate around," says Shuping.

Browse3D is a piece of software you need to see and play with to appreciate. There is a free trial version for download at the browse3d website.