Opera claims speed record with 10.50 beta

Opera's new browser is eight times quicker, according to the firm

Opera has launched a beta version of its 10.50 browser for Windows, claiming it to be the fastest yet created.

The new browser runs web applications and sites eight times faster than previously, according to Opera. It does this by using the firm's new Carakan JavaScript engine and Turbo technology to offer faster browsing on limited networks, the firm said.

Christen Krogh, chief development officer at Opera, explained that the company had worked hard to improve its previous JavaScript engine, Futhark, to offer an even faster browsing experience.

"The challenge for our engineers was to make Opera the fastest browser on earth. We are proud to show the results of the work the team has done, and we are looking forward with great anticipation to the final release of Opera 10.50, " he said.

The new browser offers private browsing so that no history is stored, and a new platform that lets Opera Widgets move beyond the browser and on to the desktop to operate as native applications.

The beta version also includes the ability to use a preferred search engine from the address field, and will bring up matching results in the history, bookmarks and actual content of pages visited.

Opera 10.50 runs on the Opera Presto 2.5 engine and offers support for HTML5, CSS 2.1 and most of CSS3 to enable web sites to display in the way intended by developers and designers, the firm said.

Opera also confirmed that Linux and Mac beta versions of the browser will be available soon.

The firm announced yesterday that it will demonstrate its new browser for the iPhone at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona next week. Opera claims that it is six times faster than Apple's preinstalled Safari.